What does it take to be a manufacturing CEO today?

With the extreme complexity and ambiguity of the present, it’s no wonder that CEOs tell us constantly that leading a company is like navigating a Rubik's cube. As one CEO said: “Every week on multiple occasions, I now face situations that I have little to no experience in.” 

Because of this, CEOs know they must keep growing and transforming themselves to foster the collaboration and innovation that their organizations depend on. No CEO can be an island of authority unto themselves. They need to keep evolving and adapting to respond to the world around them. Or, as one CEO succinctly put it: “We absolutely can’t have a big CEO anymore.”  

In the manufacturing sector, the challenges weighing upon CEOs have been especially apparent: from ongoing trade and supply chain matters to factory floor concerns and trade union issues. And then there are other emerging risks, around new technologies, in particular, as well as the many expectations of environmental, social, and governance matters, not to mention the changing landscapes of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

On top of it all, CEOs today are beholden to a growing number of “louder” and often more polarizing voices of stakeholders vying for their attention and increasingly compounding the complexity of their decision-making.

To uncover how manufacturing CEOs are tackling these complexities, Egon Zehnder and the Manufacturers Alliance Foundation conducted a comprehensive study, blending surveys and first-person interviews. Our findings shed light on the evolving role of CEOs, their preparedness for the challenges ahead, and the strategies they employ to lead effectively