{"id":228371,"date":"2018-03-03T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=228371"},"modified":"2018-03-02T17:28:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T15:28:35","slug":"the-two-careers-more-than-half-of-the-worlds-top-100-ceos-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/228371\/the-two-careers-more-than-half-of-the-worlds-top-100-ceos-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"Two job types more than half of the world’s top 100 CEOs have worked in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recruitment website, Aaron Wallis, has released a new report<\/a> <\/strong>on the characteristics of the world’s top 100 most influential CEOs.<\/p>\n

The study is based upon a number of separate reports and publications – including the most recent Forbes data – with the aim of collating them to help decipher the first career moves and education of the world\u2019s most powerful CEOs.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the research suggests that it is near impossible to make it to the top of one of the largest businesses without a degree – 98% of the top 100 CEOs are graduates.<\/p>\n

Of the 98 graduates, the most popular degree type was business (36%) followed by engineering, accounting for 23% of the graduate CEOs.<\/p>\n

The breakdown of the top 5 degree types for CEO graduates are:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Degree type<\/th>\nCount of CEOs<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Business<\/td>\n33<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Engineering<\/td>\n21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Economics<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Accounting & Finance<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Computer Science<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The research also looks into the age and gender of the largest companies\u2019 CEOs. 96% of these CEOs are male, with only 4 of the largest businesses in the World having a female CEO.<\/p>\n

The average \u2018Top CEO\u2019 age is 59, with by far the most prominent age group being between 56-60, accounting for 42% of the CEOs reviewed.<\/p>\n

The top 5 age groups can be seen below, out of 96 CEOs with publicly available information of their age:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Age range<\/th>\nCount of CEOs<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
56-60<\/td>\n40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
61-65<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
51-55<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
66-70<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
41-45<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Finally, the study reviews the career backgrounds of the most powerful CEOs, grouping their career backgrounds into concise categories. 54% of the \u2018Top CEOs\u2019 have a career background in either finance or operations.<\/p>\n

The top 5 career backgrounds can be seen below:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Professional Background<\/th>\nProportion of CEOs<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Operations<\/td>\n28%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Finance<\/td>\n26%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R & D<\/td>\n14%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data analysis<\/td>\n11%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sales<\/td>\n8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIn 2018 we are seeing that it is near impossible to lead a big business without being a graduate and that earning an MBA can be a real advantage to progressing your career, said\u00a0Rob Scott, MD at Aaron Wallis.<\/p>\n

“Starting out in an operations or finance related field can give you the mindset and strategic thinking which is necessary to make it to the top,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s also unsurprising how many CEOs in our study have worked in a sales role at some point in their career, teaching you the communication skills to manage staff and negotiate large business deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: A third of SA jobs will either change or disappear: Gauteng premier<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recruitment website, Aaron Wallis, has released a new report on the characteristics of the world’s top 100 most influential CEOs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":228389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[12895,26],"class_list":["post-228371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-aaron-wallis","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228371"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229205,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228371\/revisions\/229205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}