Discover what’s common among 83% of India’s CEOs. This analysis from the “CEO Landscape 2024” series explores the professional qualifications, backgrounds, and trends in leadership roles across 100 Indian companies.
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝟴𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮’𝘀 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀?
India’s penchant for professional qualifications is reflected in the CEO pool. 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝟴𝟯% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – a BE, premier MBA, or a CA, for the most part. Remember that this represents both promoter-CEOs and professional-CEOs.
A technical education is often the case, with BE/BTech standing out. It’s totally understandable, given that the average CEO is 57 years old, and when they grew up, there were very few academic options to choose from. Wonder how this will be when the current generation or the previous few generations step into the role in the future.
How about the work background? Which function did the current CEOs come from? For this, we need to look only at the professional-CEOs and not include the promoter-CEOs.
Within the professional-CEOs, 𝟱𝟳% 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 & 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, which shows a broad-based, industry-agnostic, and B2B/B2C-agnostic preference. Next, at fairly similar levels, come the triumvirate – 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗦𝗖𝗠 & 𝗢𝗽𝘀, and 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 backgrounds. In this, the Strategy background is the surprising entry – anecdotally too, 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 (𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴) 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴.
𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 “𝘊𝘌𝘖 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 2024” 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 100 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 20 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘌𝘖, 𝘊𝘍𝘖 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘟𝘖 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 1100 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴.
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