Good morning, I'm Allison Pohle, a workplace reporter for the Journal's corporate team, stepping in to write today's CEO Brief.

What does it mean to be a CEO who manages four other CEOs?

It's all just "titles, titles, titles," says Glenn Fogel, the head of Booking Holdings. As president and chief executive, he oversees the chief executives of Priceline, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable. He's also the head of Booking.com .

I spoke to Fogel last week about a range of topics, but we spent a lot of time talking about AI. He sees a future where the company will flag in advance that your flight is likely to be delayed because of storms, then offers another itinerary. It can also change your dinner reservations (booked through OpenTable) and send a note to your hotel letting them know you've had a long day and to send up a bottle of champagne.

That means coordination with other CEOs. Every organization has a hierarchy, and, Fogel said, the title of one CEO or another? "You can call the person Chief, I don't know. Chief Akabaka. What's the difference?"

There are, of course, strategic differences. Fogel has spent more than 26 years at Booking Holdings and has overseen the acquisition of many of those brands. These days, his role is to set the vision and the culture.

He doesn't get in the weeds of any specific thing, but he does set expectations. "You know I stopped coding for a living in 1985," he said. "But I darn well believe it's important that the coding is done and done well."

When it comes to his tips as the CEO of CEOs, he says, first, you have to be willing to say, "you're right, I'm wrong. Let's do it your way." If you believe it's your way or the highway, you'll soon find yourself walking out the door and onto that highway.

He also says it's good to get down to the proverbial factory floor. Whenever he visits another office, he eats in the employee cafeteria. He suggests finding a group that has just started eating, rather than those who are just finishing and might feel trapped by the big boss sitting down with them.

He asks what they're working on and what frustrates them. Then he'll figure out who that person reports up to, and will contact that person to ask about what he can do.

"You're not gonna solve every problem that way," he says, "but you can get a feel for how are things going."

Keep reading: CEO Brief recently spoke with OpenTable CEO Debby Soo

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Number of the Day

The sum that a mother and daughter in Kentucky turned down when a company tried to buy hundreds of acres of land from them. The pair first agreed to sell. Then they learned that the land would be used for a hyperscale data center. "That information turned their answer into an easy one," the Journal writes. "No."

About Us

CEO Brief is written and edited by a team from The WSJ Leadership Institute: Alan Murray, president; Erle Norton, C-Suite Content managing editor; and Lila MacLellan, CEO Brief editor.

The Leadership Institute aims to redefine executive leadership development and peer networking by leveraging the unparalleled trust and insights of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal to create exclusive, transformative experiences for industry leaders that help them navigate the ever-changing landscape. To learn more, read on here.

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