Unveiling an Average Indian CEO

With the Indian CEOs salaries inching to global standards, have you ever wondered who this average Indian CEO is?  The profile is typically male, aged 56 years with a degree from India’s premier institutes of the likes of IITs & IIMs. Business, mechanical engineering & finance being the most popular subjects studied by them; although only 1 in 4 have an MBA.

This, when compared to the profile of CEOs across Asia Pacific, our country has a slightly higher proportion of female CEOs; however, fewer CEOs have degrees from foreign universities.

NASDAQ listed Qlik, a developer of business intelligence software has shared these findings from a study done to analyse the top 250 companies in Asia based on the 2013 Forbes Global 2000 rankings, which included a base of 50 companies from India.

Of the Indian companies that were surveyed, 92% had male CEOs as compared to 97% for the rest of Asia Pacific. Despite the fact that women make up over 40% of the global workforce, their representation is around 10% at board-level positions worldwide. In comparison to the rest of Asia Pacific, while India is still highest on the number of female CEOs, the percentage is really low (4 female CEOs out of 50). As per Phillip Beniac, regional Vice President for Qlik Asia Pacific and Japan, “While that’s clearly still a low percentage, positive change could well be underway with India recently passing legislation which mandates that corporations’ boards of directors include at least one female member.”

While this was regarding the gender, with respect to age, an average CEO is 56 years old in India as well as in Asia Pacific. The range for India is from 47 to 69 years while for Asia Pacific it is as wide as from 33 to 84 years. However, with most companies today wanting younger minds who understand the pulse of the economy and are energetic, this age bracket is likely to drop in the coming years.

With respect to experience, the study finds that 80% of the CEOs in India have 5 years or less experience as CEOs, compared to 66% in Asia Pacific. The majority of CEOs in India have held positions such as Directors, Executive Directors, and Managing Directors etc. in their previous jobs- – only 8% were previously CEOs, and 50% are from the finance and manufacturing industries.

From an education standpoint, more than 75% of CEOs in India are graduated from a local university, as compared to 63% in Asia Pacific. This trend is also true for Indians who are now CEOs of global companies and seems like it will be a growing trend. As Asia becomes a big market for the consumers, companies want people who can understand the pulse of the consumers, their cultural differences & consumption profiles. Education from a foreign university is hardly seen to play a role there!