has opened a global debate about the role of the CEO in the 21st century. The study involved a survey of 200 CEOs and 100 board directors, as well as 100 institutional investors with at least $100 billion under management. EY also spoke one-on-one with some of today’s global business leaders.
Yet there may be a bit of passing of the buck involved here. Fifty-seven percent of CEOs believe that it is in the interest of large companies for their CEOs to tackle global challenges, but only 45% think that about their own company. Those CEOs who are not convinced that they themselves should be tackling global issues may be reassured to learn that in the future, almost 80% of board members and investors are likely to be supportive when CEOs take a stand on a politically charged issue.
Yet board directors and investors believe that CEOs should be taking more decisive actions like integrating a plan on global challenges into corporate strategy and linking internal governance, performance measures and rewards to global challenge objectives. As of today, fewer than half of CEOs report having undertaken these two actions—clearly
The question is, is remixing the C-suite composition the best way to respond to fast-changing markets—or is it time for a deeper rethink? The study participants suggest that deeper kinds of changes to the C-suite model are needed to thrive in the next decade.