Human Resource: The CEO's Path to the Top:

Saturday, May 21, 2005

The CEO's Path to the Top:

An intresting article on Knowledge Wharton

When Edward D. Breen was named chairman and CEO of scandal-plagued Tyco International in July 2002, one national magazine reasoned that he had taken on a job that would make "lesser CEOs quake in their wingtips." But Breen's footsteps to the top were not just steady; they also tracked a new pathway to the executive suite, one no longer dictated by the older, company-trained, academic-elite candidates. Breen was 46, a graduate of a non-Ivy League school and, to everyone's relief, had moved up the corporate ranks of another company entirely, never holding a job at Tyco until he was named CEO.

As one of the top human resource executives at EDS, Tracey M. Friend found that her entrepreneurial background was a plus when she interviewed for the job of portfolio manager for recruitment services. A graduate of the University of Florida, the 35-year-old Friend had already built and sold her own Internet recruitment and training company and worked for two competing technology companies before joining EDS last August. "Skills and capabilities open the doors, not degrees," she said.

And when Ed W. Flowers, 48, was named senior vice president for human resources at Russell Corp. -- the Atlanta-based apparel company -- in July 2003, he had no reservations about joining the executive ranks of a company where he had never worked. "People advance in their careers today based on performance," said Flowers, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who had previously been global head of HR for the Merisant, a Chicago-based maker of table sweetener products. Advancement is "not based on an entitlement mentality."

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