How a16z evaluates CEOs

Andreessen Horowitz evaluates CEOs on three questions: whether the CEO knows what to do, whether the CEO can get the company to do it, and whether results were achieved against appropriate objectives. The post argues that the first two questions, which it calls "white box" criteria, predict future performance better than results alone, which it calls a lagging indicator. Under the first question, the author writes that a company's story and strategy are the same thing, and that a CEO's decision quality is shaped by incomplete information and the courage to act on it. The post also cites Jeff Bezos's 1997 shareholder letter as an example of a clear company story, and Netflix's Reed Hastings's culture reference guide as an example of designing a system that makes employees effective.