What are the gaps to you becoming CEO? Please select your two biggest gaps.

Our survey found that 60% of CFOs want to be chief executives, and 7 in 10 say they are ready to become CEO now. Said the CFO of a public company: “Since all business decisions ultimately have a financial implication for the organization, the CFO’s role gives an opportunity of a 360-degree view of the business, and hence is the most logical role to ultimately grow into the CEO’s role.”

CFOs who also serve as non-executive directors on boards (80%) were more likely to believe they are ready to be CEO now, compared to 67% of non-NEDs, and multi-time CFOs (77%) were more likely to say they are ready now than first-time CFOs (67%).

Some industries also have CFOs who feel more ready for the role than others. A little over half of Technology and Communications CFOs (55%) say they are ready to be CEO now compared to 82% of Healthcare and Pharmaceutical CFOs, who are ready to take the reins immediately. The level of readiness also varies depending on ownership structure: 74% of public company CFOs feel ready now (the number is even higher for companies in the $6-10B revenue range), compared to only 56% of CFOs of family-owned companies.

But there are some hurdles to the top post. Nearly half (46%) of CFOs surveyed say networking and visibility is the biggest barrier to them becoming CEO, followed by customer and market knowledge and operational expertise.

What are the gaps to you becoming CEO? Please select your two biggest gaps.

CFO insights by region

At the regional level, CFOs in Europe and North America concur with those barriers, while in Latin America the top two biggest gaps are operational experience and strategic visioning.

Interestingly, when we look at industry, healthcare and pharmaceutical CFOs heavily emphasized the need to develop their customer and market knowledge (68%). Conversely, the share of this industry’s CFOs who mentioned needing leadership skills was 0%.

Some CFOs have told us that due to the demands of the job they are considering early retirement. Has this thought occurred to you?

CFO insights by region

However, not every CFO aspires to be CEO. As one CFO put it, “[The duration of the role] has been 12 years in my case, and although I am proud of the achievements in that period, I ponder whether a change would be appropriate for my energy level.”

In fact, in North America, half of the CFOs surveyed have considered early retirement, at least partially driven by the increased complexity of the role.

Some CFOs have told us that due to the demands of the job they are considering early retirement. Has this thought occurred to you?

CFO insights by revenue

Our survey also found that the larger the company, the higher the likelihood that a CFO debates early retirement. Forty-seven percent of companies with more than $10 billion in revenue have considered it compared to 36% of CFOs in companies with less than $1 billion in revenue.

CFOs from public (42%) and family-owned (41%) companies were also more likely to consider early retirement compared to private company CFOs (36%). One motivation behind these retirement thoughts is that CFOs of larger public companies may have stronger board service prospects.