Leadership Incident Essay

Companies differ markedly in their ability to produce future leaders, as several recent analyses of the 1,187 prodigiousst publicly-traded U.S. companies revealed. Among the CEOs in one study, a remarkable total of 26 once worked at General Electric (GE). But as the duck below shows, on a per-employee basis that earns GE only tenth place in foothold of the likelihood of a current or former employees becoming CEO of a large company. Top on the list is management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Amazingly, if we extrapolate into the future from the current stock of McKinsey alums who are CEOs, of every 690 McKinsey employees, one will become CEO of a Fortune 1000 company.Some companies did not fare nearly as head, such as Citigroup (odds 30,1801), AT&T (odds 23,2201), and Johnson & Johnson (odds 15,2751). While some capacity dismiss the results, not surprisingly, the companies at the top of the list do not. We are a leadership locomotive engine and a talent machine, said reti ring P&G CEO A. G. Lafley. Questions1. Management consulting firms did very well on a per-employee basis, partly because they are mostly comprised of managers (as opposed to blue-collar or entry-level workers). How big a factor do you think composition of the workforce is in likelihood of producing a CEO? 2. Do you think so-called leadership factories are also better places for non-leaders to work? Why or wherefore not? 3. Assume you had job offers from two companies that differed only in how often they produced CEOs. Would this difference affect your stopping point? 4. Do these data give any credence to the value of leader selection and leader maturation? Why or why not?Based on D. McCarthy, The 2008 Best Companies for Leaders, Great Leadership (February 17, 2009), http//www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/ F. Hansen, expression Better LeadersFaster, Workforce Management (June 9, 2008), pp. 25-28 D. Jones, Some Firms Fertile Soil Grows Crop of Future CEOs, the States Today (Janua ry 9, 2008), pp. 1B, 2B.