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Business Roles
Business Roles
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ZestyQuokka
ZestyQuokka
Stealth

PA vs EA vs CoS vs Founder's Office - How are they all different?

  1. PA - Personal Assistant Managing your personal commitments, people very high up (read rich) hire them, because their personal social life is as active

  2. EA - Executive Assistant Managing professional commitments, they ensure your calendar is up to date, your travel and stay bookings, basically admin work for CXOs

  3. PM - Personal Managers The ones that celebrities have, they manage personal and professional commitments

  4. CoS - Chief of Staff Generally to CEO/Founders (can be to other CXOs too), one person keeping founders on track with mission the company is built for. Strictly professional role, but some new age founders try blurring these lines. Major red flag 🚩

  5. Founder's Office Can be one to multiple members, taking care of different departments - marketing, strategy, operations, etc. This is usually huge cost to company, and very profitable (or well funded) companies can manage sustaining these.

Putting in here what I have learnt in the industry, please feel free to correct me/ add more details here

8mo ago
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CosmicDumpling
CosmicDumpling
Stealth8mo

One comes from an IIM, One from an IIT,one comes from abroad, one from a local college and one from some or the other family

WigglySushi
WigglySushi
InMobi8mo

The realest answer

SqueakyBiscuit
SqueakyBiscuit
Swiggy8mo

🥇

WobblyMochi
WobblyMochi
Accenture8mo

How is Founders office different from Chief of Staff?

ZestyQuokka
ZestyQuokka
Stealth8mo

They can be same in smaller companies, but Chief of Staff manages more departments than Founder's office

JazzyWalrus
JazzyWalrus
Stealth8mo

@BiryaniEnthu do they have any core KPIs for Chief of Staff?

SleepyWalrus
SleepyWalrus
Infinity Learn8mo

Only the name is different the. Job role is almost similar in these mentioned designations

ZestyQuokka
ZestyQuokka
Stealth8mo

Similar but quite distinct too

PeppyUnicorn
PeppyUnicorn
Stealth8mo

The problem is the companies themselves are confused in this regard. Saw a Founder's office job description in passing the other day, which mostly revolved around scheduling meetings for the CEO and nothing beyond it.

ZestyQuokka
ZestyQuokka
Stealth8mo

Exactly! CoS and Founder's Office are strictly professional, if you need someone to manage calendar get an EA or VA (virtual assistant)

FloatingPancake
FloatingPancake
Stealth8mo

Usually, chief of staff heads the founder's office. Chief of Staff is supposed to be a senior role. Agree that EA and PA has been blurred. EA to the CXO has been used by companies either to mean founder's office or admin work for CXOs. In companies where this means founder's office, you might also see a PA role for admin related work.

ZestyQuokka
ZestyQuokka
Stealth8mo

Well yes, but that would be too big a company to hire all these roles. and honestly that's stupid

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