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Where Strategy Directors come from

I realise it's been a while since I've had time to blog. The second half of last year turned out a bit busy. I'm putting it down to a sudden realisation in a lot of Executive teams that creative destruction applies to them too. Anyhow, here's a quick first post on something I promised last year - an analysis of where Executive Level Chief Strategy Directors start their careers.

As you can see, Strategy Consulting is the most common starting point for CSOs, but perhaps not as dominant as I'd expected - just over 20% of the most senior strategists in the S&P 500 and FTSE 100 started there. More than half of those came from McKinsey, with the remainder evenly split between BCG, Bain and Monitor.
Why did I do this analysis? Primarily because I'm interested in how businesses set up their strategic decision-making culture. For me, the main role of the strategist is to facilitate the process of developing, realising and reflecting on strategic decisions. To do that means creating and/ or maintaining a language and philosophy within an organisation. That philosophy doubtless forms over time and through many experiences, but is also likely to be based on one's early education. It is therefore interesting how many senior strategists come from an investment banking and legal background, versus a truly strategic one.
More on this topic... sometime soon I hope!!
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