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THE SECRETS OF CEOs
Cheung, managing director of Walt Disney China, has placed “a huge commitment to learn and a desire to lead” at the core of his career. At both the fast stable and broadening stages, some experiences carry a premium. Arguably, with the high value on flexibility and growth that will be seen in the next 10 years, strategy consulting and global operations consulting firms will be an even stronger background than accounting. Like investment banks, consultancies can give you exposure to CEOs and some of their most important problems as well as broad cross-industry experience very quickly. Professional services firms also put you under pressure to perform from the get-go. You’ll find your personal limits pretty quickly. Mitch Garber agrees. “The professions are a great grounding: accounting firms, consultancies, investment banks, and search firms all give you business experience in deals, finance, and people, but also complex problem solving, presentation at board level, and also performing under pressure.” It’s the route Brent Hoberman took. “In my mind, I always knew I wanted to set up my own business,” he says. “But I went into consulting first for a couple of years to give me an experience base. It also gave me the ability to simplify complex problems and build business models. If starting again, I would join a start-up or early-stage consultancy with a focus on business transformation to maximize the experience. In the future, it will also be key for a CEO to have a period in an entrepreneurial high-growth business; it helps you not be afraid to change if things are not working and also to take more commercial risk. There are also operational benefits such as the ability to bring urgency and get things done by doing things in parallel rather than in series.” Equally, this is not to say that the great industrial brands like GE and Procter & Gamble will not continue to be training academies for world-beating CEOs. However, the trick will be to judge at what point in your career a move into one of the behemoths makes sense and what to jump out of them for. As you move around, try to get experience of two to three industries, three to four functions within them, and of working under different capital structures, such as for private equity owners or a family office.