One could be forgiven, then, for assuming that a good CEO is little more than an omnipotent puppeteer, pulling the strings to assign the right people to the right projects. These are the CEOs of Hollywood screenplay writers. The real world could hardly be more different.

According to Egon Zehnder’s Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini, most CEOs operate at just 50-75% of their potential, and before being able to transform their company, CEOs first need to transform themselves. In an interview with ‘Agefi’s Elsa Floret, Pedrazzini discussed the results of Egon Zehnder’s global CEO survey, how the role of an executive is changing and how to measure the potential of a future CEO.

Any change you make is going with your people, not against your people.” – Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene in conversation with EgonZehnder’s KarimJalbout on stage at CognitionX

According to Vivek Khemka, who co-leads Egon Zehnder’s CEO Practice in India, chief executives are, in general, quite confident in their skills and their abilities, but at the same time also admit that certain parts of the role have proven more challenging and isolating than anticipated.

This year, just 5% of CEOs in the S&P 1500 index are women, compared with 4% in 2015 and 2014. A new study released by the Pew Research Center found that of the four highest paid executives beneath the CEO at each company, just 11.5% were held by women.

Leadership has never been easy. Yet given the current volatility of the external world—stemming from geopolitical uncertainty, activist pressure, a new generation of employees, and digital disruption—running a large company is both more challenging and less secure than it’s ever been, as the daily drumbeat of CEO departures shows.

Whether it’s racial tensions in a coffee shop or testimony before Congress about privacy, CEOs face a lot of pressure to make things right. But where do CEOs typically turn to when they need honest feedback Not the boardroom.

Between November 2017 and January 2018, Egon Zehnder conducted a global research project, surveying current chief executives from a wide cross-section of industries, countries, and corporate structures. A large number—402 of them—responded, sharing their perspectives on what the job entails, the level of preparation they felt they had received, their succession planning process, and how they lead and cope in these volatile times.

A global survey of newly-appointed CEOs by Egon Zehnder reveals the role is more difficult and demanding than many respondents – approximately two-thirds – feel prepared for.

The mobile industry is in the midst of large-scale evolution requiring every company to be more agile, more efficient and more innovative in the effort to discover and implement new ways of adding value.