Based on some of my posts related to Seth Godin, Somill Hwang of Bite Communications brought to my attention the results of a new study by the Institute of International Research, which polled 1,300 business leaders and discovered that 29 percent believed that marketing is the most important area of expertise among next-generation leaders.
Here’s the question the IIR posed and a snapshot of the results:
What will be the most important area of expertise for the next generation of leaders?
Marketing: 29 percent
Operations: 22 percent
Finance: 14 percent
Sales: 8 percent
Engineering: 8 percent
Now it’s always a bit hard to interpret these kinds of survey results very deeply. That said, it’s an interesting question when one considers that many CEOs have come from second-in-command positions like CFO or COO positions. What do you think about these results?
Steve Shu
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