Career Planning

What Is a Vice President?

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Updated on September 13, 2022

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VP meeting with team — Photo:

Yuri Arcurs / Getty Images

Definition

A vice president (VP) is senior-level executive in an organization who reports to the president or the CEO. The VP usually functions as the second in command within the organization.

Key Takeaways

A vice president is a senior-level executive in an organization and has significant responsibilities.
There may be only one or many VPs within an organization, depending on size and structure.
If the company has one VP, then they're usually second in command after the president or CEO and would take over the role in their absence.
A VP is usually a level above a director, and can be a director's manager.

What Is a Vice President?

The vice president usually serves as the second or third employee who is in charge of the overall business, organization, agency, institution, union, university, government, or branch of government.

In business, the duties of vice presidents vary with the organization. When an organization has a CEO and president, the VP is usually third in command. In other organizations, the same person may have the title CEO and president. In these instances, the VP is second in command.

Vice president is also a title used to designate the leader of portions of the organization or functions within organizations. These functional areas are often called departments or groups. For instance, someone can be the VP of human resources or VP of marketing, VP of finance, or VP of customer service.

Note

In the U.S. government, the vice president resides over the Senate and takes over as president in the event that the president is unable to fulfill their duties.

In large organizations, vice presidents may also have ranking titles. The executive VP is usually the highest level, followed by senior vice president, vice president, assistant VP, and associate VP. All are management-level positions with responsibilities that vary from company to company.

Note

The number of VPs and their job responsibilities varies considerably between organizations. A smaller organization may have fewer managers at the VP level but the managers may have extensive responsibilities and status. Larger organizations may have many layers of executive leadership at the VP level.

How a Vice President Works

The responsibilities of a vice president can closely mirror those of a president or CEO, and they vary depending on the needs of the organization. In cases where the vice president serves as the second in command to the president with responsibilities over a total organization, the VP may lead particular goals or hold leadership roles within all of thestrategic goals of the organization.

The VP may also make commitments and sign important documents, help form strategies, evaluate the work of other leaders, and evaluate the success of an organization.

The vice president would also normally fulfill the role of the backup decision-maker in a president or CEO's absence.

Example of a Vice President

Let's say a company of 200 employees is overhauling its marketing strategy in order to increase its online presence. The VP of Marketing at this company may be responsible for ideating and presenting the company's new marketing strategy to the President and CEO. Some of the VP's specific duties may include

Guiding and evaluating the Director of Marketing's process and plan to implement this strategy
Signing off on the marketing arm's budget for future quarters
Serving as an expert on the awareness of both the external and internal competitive landscape
Evaluating the overall success of the marketing department, making suggestions to the president and CEO on how to improve this department.

The degree of success to which the VP manages the Marketing department and its overhaul plan will determine whether or not they continue with the company in the VP or higher-management role.

Vice President vs. Director

Vice President	Director
Usually considered a senior-level executive	Usually considered at least a level below senior-level executives
Often reports to the president or CEO	Often reports to the VP
Duties are more strategic	Duties are more tactical
May manage a whole organization, several departments, or a specific department	Manages one department or team

Vice presidents and directors can both be part of an organization's management team. While duties and hierarchy can vary among companies, directors are not considered part of the senior executive team, and they're usually at least one level below a VP. In addition, a director usually manages one department or team, while VP may manage a whole organization, several departments, or a specific department. So a VP may be a director's boss, but not vice versa.

In general, a VP's role is more strategic, while a director's role is more tactical. In other words, a VP will usually set goals and objectives, and a director will ensure the department is doing what it needs to meet them, including planning, directing and coordinating efforts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What does a VP of company do?

The role of a vice president as well as their position in a company's chain of command depends on the size of the company they work for. For example, at a smaller company, the vice president may serve as second in command, helping the president run operations and making important decisions about the business' larger strategy. At a larger company,

What is the chain of command in business?

The chain of command refers to the hierarchical structure of a company's reporting structure. Although many businesses are different, a typical chain of command might go CEO, CFO, President, Vice President, Executive Director, and so on all the way down to entry-level hires.

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