The CEO Authority Audit
A measured diagnosis of where a CEO's authority infrastructure currently stands.
Most CEOs know they are less visible than they should be. Few know exactly where the gap is, how it compares to peers, or what specifically to do about it.
The CEO Authority Audit answers those three questions.
It is a bespoke, confidential diagnostic conducted by HMG for CEOs of organizations operating at scale. The audit measures the CEO's current authority infrastructure across five dimensions, benchmarks the result against the top 5% of CEOs in the cohort, and identifies the specific structural gaps that are limiting how the CEO is understood by the systems and people who matter.
The audit does not include a sales pitch. It produces a question. The CEO decides whether they want to ask it.
What the audit measures
The audit applies the CEO Authority Score, HMG's proprietary measurement framework, across five dimensions:
Findability. How AI engines and search systems describe the CEO when researched.
Owned Property. What the CEO actually controls, including personal website, owned audience, and published work. Earned Presence. What the CEO has built on platforms they do not own, primarily LinkedIn but extending across all relevant channels.
Narrative Clarity. Whether what the CEO stands for is clear, consistent, and articulable in a sentence.
Business Impact. Whether the authority infrastructure is connected to outcomes such as partnerships, board access, deal flow, and talent.
What the deliverable contains
Each audit produces a written diagnosis structured around the five dimensions. The document includes:
The CEO's score on each dimension, with the underlying observations that produced it.
A benchmark comparison against the top 5% of CEOs in the relevant peer cohort.
A clear identification of the structural gaps, distinguishing between gaps of capability (rare) and gaps of visibility (common).
A 12-month execution roadmap that prioritizes the dimensions where movement will produce the most strategic return for the CEO's specific situation.
The document is designed to be reviewed alone or in conversation with the CEO's leadership team and board. It contains no marketing material.
How the audit is conducted
The audit takes approximately three to four days from commission to delivery.
HMG's analysts conduct the measurement work across the five dimensions, drawing on AI search testing, owned property review, platform analysis, narrative consistency assessment, and business impact mapping.
The CEO's involvement during the measurement phase is zero. The deliverable is presented in a private session with the CEO and any advisors they wish to include.
What happens after
The audit is a diagnosis, not a treatment. It identifies gaps. It does not fill them. Some CEOs use the audit to inform their own work, with internal teams or other partners. Others choose to engage HMG to build the infrastructure the audit identifies as missing.
That work is delivered by the HMG Studio →, an in-house creative team operating under one strategy on behalf of a small number of CEOs at a time. There is no obligation to engage further after the audit. The audit stands alone.
Who this is for
The audit is designed for CEOs of public and private companies with revenues at scale, operating in environments where visibility, credibility, and trust materially affect outcomes. Specifically:
CEOs whose internal credibility substantially exceeds their external legibility.
CEOs who suspect they are losing access, partnerships, or talent to peers who are not better, only more visible.
CEOs who are about to enter a new role, raise a fund, or pursue a board mandate where external authority is the difference between being shortlisted and being overlooked.
CEOs preparing for a transition where their authority needs to outlast the role.
It is not designed for early-stage founders, leaders seeking short-term attention, or executives whose visibility ambitions exceed the substance of their underlying work.
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