Be a CEO for a day

The four things you protect as a CEO

• 💰
  Profit

  If Profit reaches zero, your day ends early with “Out of money by dinner”. The accounts ran dry. The board changed the locks while you were at lunch.

  38% of the choices in this role lower it, and 25% raise it.

• 👥
  Team

  If Team reaches zero, your day ends early with “Alone with the office plants”. Everyone quit. The only ones left are the plants, and they are not great at sales.

  35% of the choices in this role lower it, and 46% raise it.

• 📣
  Reputation

  If Reputation reaches zero, your day ends early with “Trending for the wrong reasons”. The brand became a joke. The board asked politely for your resignation, then less politely.

  29% of the choices in this role lower it, and 44% raise it.

• 💡
  Ideas

  If Ideas reaches zero, your day ends early with “Outrun by the competition”. You stopped inventing and a rival took your customers. Your product is now a museum piece.

  8% of the choices in this role lower it, and 38% raise it.

Tips for a better day as a CEO

1. Do not chase one number. In every role, a day with all four meters between 50 and 70 beats a day with one meter at 95 and another at 10. As a CEO, the danger is rarely the big mistake. It is the quiet neglect of one meter.
2. Watch Profit most closely. In this role, 38% of choices lower it, which makes it the meter that slips away fastest. Ideas is the most forgiving, with 8% of choices lowering it.
3. Read your advisors as opinions, not answers. Each one backs the option that helps the meters they care about, so when they disagree, ask which meter you can least afford to lose today.
4. Look for the choice that gives you something back. Many of the best options cost one meter a little and help two others. The tempting “easy” option often costs more than it seems.
5. Remember that choices can come back. A decision in the morning may return as a follow-up situation later in the day, so a quick fix early on can be expensive at six in the evening.

A sample day, step by step

Here is one example of how a careful player might get through a day as a CEO. It uses six of the sixteen situations, picks the option with the best overall balance each time, and shows what each choice did. Your own day will be different, because situations are drawn at random and some choices bring follow-ups later.

1. 7:00 AM

   Launch day is in two weeks

   The new product still has bugs. Marketing has already bought the billboards.

   Chosen: “Release a limited beta first”. Fewer people see the bugs, and the fixes arrive faster.

   💡 Ideas +10

   The road not taken: “Launch on time”. Sales spike. So does the bug report count.

   Standing after this call: 💰 50 · 👥 50 · 📣 50 · 💡 60

2. 9:30 AM

   The dance video

   A video of you dancing at the office party is trending. Your face is frozen mid-spin in every group chat.

   Chosen: “Post your own dance”. People love a boss who can laugh at himself.

   👥 Team +10📣 Reputation +15

   The road not taken: “Ask people to take it down”. The Streisand effect takes it from there.

   Standing after this call: 💰 50 · 👥 60 · 📣 65 · 💡 60

3. 12:00 PM

   The four-day week

   Your team asks for a four-day work week. Finance asks for a lie-down.

   Chosen: “Approve it”. Output stays strong and morale soars. The competition panics.

   💰 Profit −10👥 Team +20📣 Reputation +10💡 Ideas +5

   The road not taken: “Reject it”. Nothing changes, except the mood.

   Standing after this call: 💰 40 · 👥 80 · 📣 75 · 💡 65

4. 3:00 PM

   The rent goes up

   Your landlord raises the office rent by 40%. Moving is possible but messy.

   Chosen: “Go hybrid and shrink the office”. Everyone gets Fridays at home and a smaller coffee machine.

   💰 Profit +5👥 Team +5💡 Ideas +5

   The road not taken: “Pay it”. Nothing changes except the bank balance.

   Standing after this call: 💰 45 · 👥 85 · 📣 75 · 💡 70

5. 6:00 PM

   The star engineer wants out

   Your best engineer has a rival offer in her inbox. She built half your product and knows it.

   Chosen: “Offer equity and a free-choice project”. She stays and starts building something nobody asked for, in a good way.

   💰 Profit −5👥 Team +5💡 Ideas +15

   The road not taken: “Wish her luck”. She leaves. Her unfinished projects stay behind and stare at you.

   Standing after this call: 💰 40 · 👥 90 · 📣 75 · 💡 85

6. 9:00 PM

   The intern and the database

   An intern deleted a client’s data folder by accident. Backups exist, but only up to last Thursday.

   Chosen: “Fix the process, keep the intern”. Backups now run hourly and the intern becomes the person who knows exactly how they work.

   💰 Profit −5👥 Team +10📣 Reputation +5💡 Ideas +5

   The road not taken: “Let the intern go”. The problem is fixed. The fear stays.

   Standing after this call: 💰 35 · 👥 100 · 📣 80 · 💡 90

Situations you may face

Every game uses six of these sixteen situations, so you will not meet them all in one day. There are also 4 follow-up situations that return after specific choices and 3 surprises that can appear without warning.

• The app is down. Your app has been offline for two hours. Customers are posting angry screenshots and your support inbox has stopped loading.
• The investor wants layoffs. Your biggest investor calls at breakfast. He wants 10% of the staff gone this quarter to protect margins.
• The star engineer wants out. Your best engineer has a rival offer in her inbox. She built half your product and knows it.
• Launch day is in two weeks. The new product still has bugs. Marketing has already bought the billboards.
• The dance video. A video of you dancing at the office party is trending. Your face is frozen mid-spin in every group chat.
• An offer to buy the company. A giant competitor offers to buy Nexora for a great price. They also say they plan to “simplify the product line”.
• A complaint about a top salesperson. An employee reports serious misconduct by your top salesperson. He brings in almost a third of your revenue.
• The four-day week. Your team asks for a four-day work week. Finance asks for a lie-down.
• The intern and the database. An intern deleted a client’s data folder by accident. Backups exist, but only up to last Thursday.
• The AI craze. The board wants an AI chatbot in every product by Friday. Your engineers call it hype in a nice jacket.
• The big client wants a discount. Your biggest client says they will leave unless you cut their price by 30%. They are 15% of your revenue.
• The rent goes up. Your landlord raises the office rent by 40%. Moving is possible but messy.
• A harsh review goes viral. A famous reviewer says your product is “a very expensive way to lose files”. It has two million views.
• A cousin wants a job. A relative of a board member wants a senior role. His CV mostly says “family business”.
• A hacker sends an email. A security researcher found a serious hole in your system and says he will publish it in a week unless you respond.
• The keynote clash. You are invited to give a keynote at a big industry event. It is the same day as your yearly team planning.

Every ending (spoilers)