Mary Barra made corporate history seven months ago when she became the first female CEO of a major global carmaker. But her rise to success is still an anomaly among the very largest companies.
That’s because unlike Barra, who’d been in charge of General Motors Co.‘s product development for two years before her appointment, a majority of top-ranked women in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index aren’t in the kinds of operational jobs that lead to a chief executive office. Rather, 55 percent of them are finance chiefs, top lawyers or heads of human resources, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
About 94 percent of S&P 500 CEOs held top operations positions immediately before ascending to the top job, and the relative scarcity of women overseeing product lines or entire businesses risks slowing their advance to the very top. The data show that the next generation of female executives is poorly positioned to capitalize on recent progress at a time companies from Google Inc. to Apple Inc. are laying bare their lack of diversity to help raise the number of women and minorities in the workforce.
Read more: Crain’s Detroit Business
More than a third of large organizations are undergoing business transformations at any given time,…
In the first 90 days, the right conversations matter more than most new managers realize—and…
A committee of his peer CEOs recognized Brown for transforming a once-struggling cellular handset manufacturer…
The bestselling author and advisor to CEOs shares what he’s counseling manufacturers as they navigate…
Rising investment. Unclear outcomes. Increasing scrutiny on the executives responsible for both. The risk isn’t…
In a populist moment for America, standing your ground is the only strategy.