In today's ultra-competitive marketplace, executives who reach the upper echelons of management tend to have set themselves apart from their peers through their keen intelligence, strong communication skills, organizational acumen, or some powerful combination of savvy and foresight. But one stripe is common to a full three-quarters of Fortune 100 CEOs today: They have all spent at least two years working in a senior position overseas, according to a new study by Healthy Companies International.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/What-the-Resumes-of-Top-CEOs-usnews-1845675616.html?x=0Although globalization is by no means new, the data suggests a rapid transformation in resume requirements for leaders of the world's largest corporations. Just 10 years ago, about half of CEOs had held senior positions overseas, according to the study. It's not just CEOs who are going abroad. The percentage of Fortune 100 "C-suite" executives--those whose titles often begin with "chief"--who have had senior responsibilities overseas has jumped to 71 percent from 48 percent 10 years ago, according to the study. Go back even further--to, say, 20 years ago--and you'll find many companies in which overseas assignments actually took employees off the internal executive track. The mindset was such that, "once you step out of that arena, you've made a choice. Your passion is to live internationally, not to be a company man," says Mark Smith, president of Healthy Companies Research Institute.
Today, the mindset in such a company has likely flipped.
