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If private industry were the military, most companies would be headed by O5 or O6; the scope of duties and responsibilities of an eg VP or CFO are actually quite comparable to a lt colonel or navy commander, CEOs are fairly like captains & colonels. These ranks are enough to head a large ship, air base, or training facility with hundreds or thousands under their command. Only extremely large companies (50k+ employees) have anything with a role comparable to admirals or generals.


Former U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer. This checks out, based on my experience working as a civilian since 2004.


CEOs are more like high ranking general officers, not O-6 level (Navy Captain, Army/Air force full bird colonel)

O-5 (Lt Col, Navy Commander) would be VP / GM level stuff, GS-13 through GS-14 in the federal government

O-6 equivalent in the civilian world equates to a GS-15 in the federal government, and a senior VP in the corporate world

O-7 (brigadier general) would be an EVP level position, C-level large org

O-8 (general) would be CEO


I think you’re just assuming the highest corporate role must be equivalent to general and working back from that.

For understanding their actual scope of responsibility I think my model is more useful.




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