MBB -> ??? -> CEO Fortune 500
What fills the ??? in the career path?
It seems as though upon leaving MBB most people either go into finance of some sort (PE, Hedge Funds, Asset Mgmt etc) or corporate strategy (i.e. internal 'consultants') or start-ups.
However, of these, none seem to be great experience for eventually landing a senior management role in a F500 company. It seems that in order to do that you need to go from MBB to some type of operational role at an F500 but I haven't seen that happen very often/ever.
So, what is the best path to try and follow to one day become a CEO?
MBB-> Get Lucky as Hell -> CEO of Fortune 500
F500 CEO is not a realistic end goal. You can say you want to put yourself in Senior Leadership with a chance at making CEO, but a goal of F500 CEO is just ridiculous.
Consulting --> internal corp strategy/corp dev group --> get promoted to head up a functional area of the company as an executive --> get promoted executive/management committee level --> President/COO/CEO/CFO/CTO*
That's how I would see that unfolding.
*Assumes you live in a perfect world
This is closest. You would usually enter as corp dev and lateral to line management then move up from there. Consultants rarely get hired directly as line managers outside of internal strategy / development.
From there it's the same corporate ladder as if you had gotten there without consulting.
What kind of attitude is that? There are 500 F500 CEOs and someone's got to have each of those jobs. Yeah it's an ambitious target and you'll need a slice of luck but you might as well aim big otherwise what's the point.
Anyone with more helpful comments?
Unfortunately there is a lot of truth to what accountingbyday said. There is no best path, but I suppose this may represent a "best shot at CEO" path:
HYP->MBB or Top BB/Elite Boutique->MBA from M7->Snr Manager Corp Dev->Director Corp Dev->VP->SVP-> CEO
Getting to the VP position requires very little luck. Your talent alone can get you that far. The criteria for hitting the next rung changes dramatically.
Getting from VP to CEO does take a fair amount of luck. You do need to be in the right place at the right time whether you want to believe it or not. If you're an SVP and the CEO role magically opens up you're only going to have one shot at. After that you have to look for external promotions to other F500s looking to fill the CEO role.
I worked for a F50 and it's a fucking logjam of talent once you get beyond the VP level.
It worked for Jeff Skilling.
As someone who has spend their entire career in the corporate (F500 world) you rarely see corpstrat or corpdev folks make it to CEO from corpstrat or corpdev directly as they have 0 experience in managing an organization or company...the typical path for a banker or a consultant who makes it to CEO tends to be something like this:
MBB / BB bank (2-3 years) --> internal corpstrat or corpdev (for 2-3 years) --> operational, sales, or product management role (move up the ranks for 8-10+ years) --> promoted to lead operating, sales or product group / division (as in you are now on the executive team and do that for 3+ years) --> CEO
I once looked into all this and it seems every company has it's own way of selecting the top 25-30 people in the organization.
FMCG firms like P&G - brand management/marketing General Electric - FMP program Defense firms - senior rank veterans from the army aerospace - engineers (even CFOs are engineers sometimes) Oil and gas - engineers and geologists
This is only true for F50 and all, companies which have been around for a LONG time and have internal systems which promote talent rather than hire outsiders (such as consultants). Others just poach talent from these ones.
I haven't seen many firms have a bias for consulting folk. The best option would be to jump into marketing/brand management if possible and fight your way to the top. Going from consulting directly into a high level operational role is unrealistic.
@kingtut - You sure about that? VP is a VERY senior position, often right below a C level exec, depending upon a firm's hierarchy and titles.
Doesn't McKinsey and GE have the highest placement into F500 CEO positions, meaning more come from these two places than any other. I recall an article that mentioned this. Former Ebay CEO was from Bain and Amex CEO was from Bain.
of the top of my head, McKinsey:
Gerstner - IBM Skilling - Enron Kevin Sharer - Amgen (formerly GE as well) McNerney - 3m, Boeing (formerly GE as well)
I think it depends on industry. In consumer, brand managers / sales people always grow faster than corp dev/strategy
Thanks for all the comments, very helpful and confirms what I was thinking. Seems that it is getting into an operational role from consulting (possibly via a corporate strategy/bus dev role) that is the key and then it is a combination of talent and a lot of luck to work your way up to the top.
.
Don't forget Rajat Gupta
The McK Copenhagen office talks about this in their FAQ (although Europe is a little different):
http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/Copenhagen/Apply_to_McKinsey/FAQ.aspx#q30
Obviously it's difficult. When I think about people at my MBB firm who have become CEOs, a lot of them stayed in consulting until partner level, as it's easier to rise (less political/luck based, more meritocratic). Then, they impressed a client and moved over to either take a CEO role at the client or a role one level down and got promoted to CEO.
Did you by chance also dream of being a professional baseball player or president when you were a kid?
BCG alum? You mean he interned there his MBA summer then chose GE full time?
I'm pretty sure he means that he worked at BCG for a while and then (eventually) joined GE.
He joined GE straight from HBS in 1982. I can't find what he did in the 2 years he worked prior to HBS, so I may be remembering incorrectly if he was an intern or analyst. Anyone have a link on this?
Memory wasn't wrong... Immelt was only at BCG for an MBA internship.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2012/04/16/business-leaders…
"He worked in Procter & Gamble's brand management operation before heading to Harvard Business School to earn his MBA."
Just read where Whitney Tilson worked at BCG for 2 years as well.
I don't get the sweater vest comment other than the fact that a lot of that generation sport the dbag sweater vest look.
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