Chairs are necessary
I worked for a guy who placed metal card table chairs in his office under the rationale that this would deter his employees from coming to see him and thus undisturbed he would be able to accomplish more work. The majority of the employees picked up on this and began to kept their problems and observations to themselves. If this person were a laborer, I could see some justification for his approach but being the CEO, structuring the environment so as to discourage communication is a gross dereliction of his duties as the company's primary communicator.