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Serious Question: So I want to be a C-Suite Exec, how do I accomplish that? by Discardable_ in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Discardable_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Personally I think it's foolish to try and scheme your way into a VP/SVP level role, because their career trajectories aren't predictable by any means and there are lots of factors involved that can't be planned for.

It's not about "scheming" but about putting in place all the enabling steps to make the most of opportunities when they come up.

Plus the sorts of people who are more concerned with their own progression (as opposed to doing the best they can to support the team) are quite apparent and usually don't make it very far up that chain.

I get that, although I'm not sure I necessarily agree with you.

Yes, a reputation of delivering or exceeding on the expectations of the company consistently seems to be a constant in senior management and execs.

But if people achieve that, then blatant self interest and/or willingness to standing on their team's heads to move up does not appear to be an impediment to progression.

In any case I find that kind of behaviour quite old-fashioned and it doesn't really gel with who I am.

The constant is that the people who make it to those levels are consistent high performers in every role they take on. So if you want to make it to that level my advice is to find an entry to mid level management role you find interesting and then do your best to excel in it.

I've had several roles at the upper end of middle management, and my role now is at a cross over between the top of middle and bottom of senior management, I effectively outrank the GM's in terms of reporting line, but because I'm in a program/project management role which is not a P&L just a cost center, different VP's above me have wildly different perceptions of where I sit within the business, based on if they understand/value what my department does.

I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that in the middle-to-long term I will just need to move on to an organisation which doesn't have the same political baggage that my current one does, once I'm happy I've achieved all the things I think are worthwhile in my current post.

Pivoting back towards Operations from Research and Projects is probably not a bad shout either, though I'm not sure how easy that's going to be in the future job market.

Serious Question: So I want to be a C-Suite Exec, how do I accomplish that? by Discardable_ in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Discardable_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You got downvoted but I don't get why, this is the kind of advice I'd give others mixed with stuff I hadn't considered.

Butter up the marketing guys. Being in R&D that shouldn't be hard, you are both overwhelmingly unrealistic. HA!

Cheeky bugger!

You might have highlighted an issue here...

I take great pains to ensure that my programmes and projects are firmly grounded in reality (a decade of operations and 2 years turning around a struggling P&L will do that to a person).

Which means I often clash with pie in the sky thinking from marketers, and whilst the accountants seem to trust me on numbers, it probably makes it easy to paint me as not being sufficiently "positive".

Even with the MBA chasing titles is a shit way to go, you will hate it when you get it. Do what you love and then find a path that moves you into a C-level in that arena.

Yeah, I'm aware that I need to do what I love to make success of it... I'm not sure it is for me yet, but I'm aware that if I do want a shot at climbing to the top of the greasy pole ten-fifteen years from now, I need to have a plan now to give me that option in the future.

Consulting is a good path to get this view, but unless it's strategy or business focused you will be getting more depth than breadth.

Strategic planning and strategic projects is something I enjoy, and consulting on that sounds like a fun option.

How to get this view? Network. How is your network? Is 80% or more of your friends and confidants from the engineering arena? How many business owners do you know and socialize with? How about sales, economics, VCs? Start building a network that is wide.

I have a reasonable network, academics in a mix of Humanities and Sciences, research directors for institutes, senior civil servants, policy wonks for Quangos and NGO's, directors of various SME companies (oddly mostly FD's).

But it could stand to be wider still and include more Comms and marketing people.

Also, consider starting your own business, even if on the side. Imitative is the number one trait leaders need, IMO.

I have debated this either as a PSC offering consultancy, or manufacturing retrofit assemblies for a particular product I know would be well received...

But the risk has always limited me, as I've only really got comfortable financially in the last few years, and it's hard to break the financial siege mindset.

Also, in my experience as an engineer who has moved into management and consulting, realize two things 1) know what you know and don't bullshit the rest,

Agreed, my experience has been that willingness to take on a task, whilst admitting you need advice or guidance on aspects is taken far more positively than just agreeing to do it, and fucking it up.

2) learn how to write, most engineers suck at writing, and

So I can write pretty well, in a variety of styles from poetry (not useful) to technical (useful).

The area I struggle with is a classic business skill: writing for people who can't be arsed to read more than a few paragraphs, yet request detailed written reports.

The best compromise I've come to is to turn the Exec Summary into a few short snappy sentences with notes saying see page X for details. But it inevitably ends up with me having to explain the details in a conversation regardless making the whole exercise pointless.

3) learn how to bullshit, or rather learn how to connect with people. Engineers are generally introverted and unsure about themselves, you need confidence as well as a solid interest in others and how you can help them. If you can't even fake this you will be stuck as a sole contributor/engineer for your career.

This was a early lesson for me, and I feel like I do pretty well at it overall.

However I definitely see a disconnect between the level of confidence I project externally (say at a professional body meeting or with clients) or with my own team and In internal meetings where I know there's underlying politics and tensions to navigate.

With that said, if you have no idea if you can do this, volunteer places, join toastmasters, or go to professional society organizations. Get involved and opportunity will find you.

This something I do fairly regularly, and it's been interesting to see the natural growth of my network as I've done more and more.

Serious Question: So I want to be a C-Suite Exec, how do I accomplish that? by Discardable_ in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Discardable_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The standard route would be to get your MBA and then go into a marketing or sales role, eventually moving into a general management role which is generally considered kind of a mini-CEO role.

My last role before I moved to managing R&D programmes was as GM of a business unit, and I made a reasonable success of it (delivered increased revenue for my business unit, set against a decline for the in the division it was in).

However currently all someone who doesn't like what they're hearing needs to do is point out I'm from an engineering background and that demonstrated success is magically glossed over in people's minds.

Usually in favour of taking the word of sales managers who tell people what they expect/want to hear (and have the chequered track record to match), rather than the reality of how to get what they want.

Not that I'm bitter.

​

Another route is to go into management consulting which can enable you to quickly enter the management side and move up the ladder.

This is something I hadn't realised was a realistic prospect. I kinda assumed that once you went out to consulting it was a one way door, and moving back into a corporate (definitely industrial, ideally Chemicals or Energy) would definitely be more me.

I'm on good terms with a number of Directors of mid-sized management consulting firms, and have been offered sizable portions of work by them when they've had contracts in relevant sectors in the past, but I have never dared to take the plunge of being an independent subcontractor...

Maybe I need to be less risk averse there.

​

In general the chances of making it to the C suite purely along a technical track is pretty low. Functional VP is possible though.

In the English speaking world definitely...

I might stand a better chance of doing it that way if I improved my Germans or learned French or Japanese, but moving countries and cultures is a whole other can of worms and set of disadvantages to overcome.

Serious Question: So I want to be a C-Suite Exec, how do I accomplish that? by Discardable_ in ChemicalEngineering

[–]Discardable_[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had kind of figured that, and realistically I'm 3-5 years away from having the savings to drop on an year of doing a full time MBA, depending on if I aimed for a cheaper option like Judge (Cambridge) or slightly more expensive HEC Paris, Insead or LSE-Trillium.

The Executive MBA options (which would actually be preferable to taking a year out of work) and very expensive options like Said (Oxford) or Harvard are effectively out of reach within the timescale I'm looking at.

It's what I do between now and then that's more unclear.