50% of FTSE 100 leaders come from just 5 types of industry
Understanding where today's CEOs have come from is a useful indicator of how to successfully create the leaders of tomorrow. We have analysed this twice over the last 3 years and have seen some significant shifts.
Our interest is primarily to understand career paths and to glean insight on how people get to the top. Hence the interest in degrees, first jobs and types of company.
Consumer Goods Companies are the largest source of CEOs followed by Accountants. This is a shift from 3 years ago and also represents the growth in the number of CEOs with a marketing background over finance.
Business services is the sector which has the lowest relative success rate in building CEOs.
Even though there is a significant drop in the number of CEOs who have worked all their career at one company, from 20% to 10%, this should not be taken as sign that job hopping and moving around is the key to success.
58% have spent over half their careers at one company and 87% have spent more than 10 years at one company.
The international mix is stable over time. The number of women running FTSE 100 companies has more than doubled form 3 to 7 but is still painfully low.
Look at the full picture below to get the insights and to see the story of what makes has made the leaders who run our world today.
If you want you can compare with the 2013 data
