In the article Corporate Career Success – How to Become CEO we discussed in detail some the key skills required to become a CEO and listed the 22 vital traits of the person at the top based on the book How to Think Like a CEO by D.A. Benton.   This article has become one of the most popular in the Worldwide Success site, and we have received a lot of interesting comments and questions related on how to become a CEO.  It is interesting to see in the comments how many young people have questions about whether they are pursuing the right undergraduate degree in order to become a CEO.  Although it is noble to be concerned about getting the right undergraduate education to reach the ambitious goal of becoming a CEO, the reality is that experience speaks a lot louder than any undergraduate degree.

 

This leads us to the main topic of this article which is a discussion around the best age to be a CEO.  In the crazy days of the dot-com explosion it was not unusual to see people straight out of college, with little or no work experience, pursuing CEO positions with start-up companies.  Now that reality has settled in, the discussion is no longer about whether experience is important, but how much experience is ideal for the top job in the corporate world.

 

The question of experience and age becomes even more pronounced as we move into a presidential election in which the two candidates are at opposite extremes of the age spectrum.  On the one hand, Barack Obama who turned 47 recently, has hardly enough experience to be considered a seasoned executive, much less the president of the most powerful and influential country on earth.  On the other hand, John McCain, who just turned 72, is at an age that would be considered by most people too old to lead a corporation, let alone the United States of America.

 

A recent article in the USA Today discussed this very issue, and pointed out that the data about corporate leaders suggest that the age of CEOs matter a lot more than is widely accepted by the CEOs themselves.   According to the search firm Spencer Stuart, the median age for a S&P 500 CEO in 2007 was 55.  Since 2000, the percentage of CEOs in the age bracket from 50 to 59 has increased from 53% to 58%.  What is even more interesting is that only 5.4% of today’s S&P 500 CEOs are at the same age or younger than Obama, and only 1.2% are at least as old as McCain.  According to the article:

 

There is a leadership sweet spot that falls in the 50s and early 60s.

 

One of the key trade-offs in the age equation for a CEO is energy vs. wisdom.   An experienced CEO may be better equipped to help a company avoid making significant mistakes, but the energy and flexibility of younger CEOs may be more important in an environment where rapid changes require quick adjustments.

 

There may be a sweet leadership spot, but every rule has its exceptions.  There are plenty of examples in the corporate world of CEOs that are at both ends of the age bell curve, but still deliver outstanding results.  Jeff Bezos at the age of 44 has managed to boost Amazon’s stock by 121% since 2006.  Richard Dugas, the 43-year-old CEO of Pulte Homes believes you can only be effective as a CEO for 15 to 20 years because it is an all consuming role.

 

On the other end of the spectrum you have people like Warren Buffett who at the age of 78, and as the highly respected chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, continues to make headline news because of his business savvy.  Sidney Harman retired at the age of 88 as CEO of audio equipment giant Harman International.  Currently at 90, Harman says he hardly detects any difference between now and when he was 70.  But he does recognize that he is an exception, and he quotes former New York Mets manager Casey Stengel: “Most men my age are dead”.

 

To be a strong and seasoned leader, the CEO needs to have dealt with tough times, and even failure.  The necessary experience to be effective at the top rarely comes before the age of 50, even though there are a few exceptions.  For the young people in their 20s who are so concerned about getting the right undergraduate degree, we leave with this advice:  If your goal is to become a CEO someday, you still have much ground to cover.  Getting exposed to the right experience over the next 20-30 years will by far outweigh any decisions you have to make today about your undergraduate degree.