CEO selection is the single most important decision the board will make, but there is a bias towards operations and finance backgrounds. Rarely are candidates with sales backgrounds considered. And no one has systematically analyzed the data to understand why.

SBI found that while nearly 60% of CEOs come from an Operations or Finance background, Sales leaders are best positioned to grow revenue faster and double enterprise value. In this report, we discuss:

1. Bias in the CEO selection process
2. Research on CEO performance
3. Why Sales CEOs more effective
4. Advice to the Board: How to de-risk future CEO ‘new hire’ decisions
5. What to do if the current CEO lacks a Sales background

    

Download the report below.

For more information on our research methodology and best practices for CEO selection, explore the appendix.