2023-06-19 03:49:35
High education is not everything｜Tracking 20 years of Fortune 500 CEO education, Professor Mei reveals that the Ivy League has no halo
Since Fortune Magazine published the “Annual Fortune 500 List” in 1999, David Kang, a professor at the University of Southern California, began to have a strong interest in the educational background of the CEOs of these companies. He concluded that not all those who climbed the career ladder came from privileged schools.
“The results were astounding,” David told Fortune. He said: “Like everyone else, I thought that most CEOs were from the Ivy League (Ivy League), but in fact, the largest part of them did not go to college at all.” According to the professor’s statistics, the 500 on the list Seven to eight out of 10 CEOs don’t have a bachelor’s degree, more than any other university.
Over the next 20 years, the professor continued to track the educational data of Fortune 500 CEOs. Compared with the original data, there is no obvious trend change in the past 20 years, and the top leaders still come from a variety of universities. According to David’s statistics, the 2023 Fortune 500 CEO list shows that only 11.8% of CEOs graduated from prestigious Ivy League schools, and only 9.8% hold MBA degrees from prestigious Ivy League schools. Not only that, 14 of the CEOs of the 20 largest companies in the United States graduated from public universities.
Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, for example, tops the list with an undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from the University of Tulsa. McMillon worked in a Walmart distribution center in high school and became Walmart CEO in 2014. Microsoft (Microsoft) CEO Nadella studied at the Manipal Institute of Technology in India and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Of the 20 CEOs of the nation’s largest companies by revenue, only one is an Ivy League graduate — Amazon’s Andy Jassy, who graduated from Harvard.
As for those who graduated from public universities, Apple (Apple) Tim Cook graduated from Auburn University, and “stock god” Buffett graduated from the University of Nebraska.
Personal performance is more important than academic qualifications
Brian Chabowski, chair of the Department of Management, Marketing and International Business at the University of Tulsa, says that advancement to the top ranks is largely a function of personal commitment and sometimes geography. Some companies specifically recruit from business schools in certain regions, which are usually not in the Ivy League.
Brian points out that academic elitism is not as prevalent in the business world as it is in academia. Individual talent affects achievement far more than the source of a degree, and successful students are often attentive, persistent, down-to-earth, and able to understand complex issues.
David said that these Fortune 500 companies come from all walks of life, including pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, retailing, etc., and are not limited to traditional “elite industries” such as finance and law. He pointed out that if one is gritty, capable, and works hard, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Harvard or a state school. Going to a school that affords them less privilege might even force them to learn business and people skills earlier, he added.
source:Fortune
Text by FORTUNE INSIGHT
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