America's global companies: a leadership profile - characteristics of chief executive officers

Business Horizons, Jan-Feb, 1993 by G.R. Bassiry, R. Hrair Dekmejian

Our findings suggest a tentative profile of successful American corporate leadership. In terms of training, education, and experience, the collective profile of the 800 CEOs represents more or less the mainstream of American society. While 47 percent hold graduate and professional degrees, 43 percent have only bachelor's degrees. About one-third come from professional backgrounds in banking and finance. A large majority of the 800 CEOs are "company men" who ascended to the top after long years of service to their firms.

It would not be presumptuous to suggest that this composite profile of 800 top American CEOs offers important insights to junior executives and business students in planning their careers in a modern corporate environment. For those planning to assume leadership roles, clearly a graduate degree is an advantage, as is a grounding in finance. In view of the existing dichotomy between CEOs from financial versus those from technical backgrounds, it would seem that an enterprising aspirant would want to bridge the two fields by acquiring degrees and training in both finance and a technical specialty.

Beyond these factors, however, perhaps the most powerful determinant of upward mobility is one's corporate loyalty as measured by long years of service to a company. These findings should offer encouragement to prospective aspirants since upward mobility is indeed possible in American corporate life. C71

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