Blog

Jeremy Greenberg shares a company post based on the Avenue Group Business Leader Research Series. This article identifies how U.S. company leaders work.

Avenue Group Business Leader Research Series

We are excited to continue our series devoted to sharing the findings from the Avenue Group Business Leader Survey.

The Avenue Group Business Research Study

We conducted an in-depth, quantitative online survey of over 500 U.S. business leaders, in which we explored perspectives on a wide range of topics. The survey respondents lead companies that have over 250 thousand dollars in annual sales, with 65 percent presiding over companies with over one million dollars in yearly revenues.

How: Skills over Experience

We asked a series of questions about the preferences, challenges, and best practices of business leaders. Overwhelmingly, respondents report that business-related skills are more important than industry experience. As much as we think of business leaders as experts in their field, it is business acumen – rather than an expertise in one’s field – that leaders believe is most important. When asked what is most important for effectively operating a business, leadership and communication skills (total of 41 percent) ranked higher than industry experience (14 percent).

In addition, respondents report that the most challenging aspects of their leadership roles are not managing industry dynamics (14 percent) or even business management (18 percent). Rather, relationship management is the most challenging aspect, making up 64 percent of the most challenging parts of the job. People management (31 percent) is the top-ranked challenge, with time management (25 percent) and partner / vendor management (8 percent) playing significant roles as well.

Who: Ongoing Learning Driven by External Sources

Business leaders seek knowledge primarily from third-party sources, with 55 percent of respondents reporting that the most effective forms of business education are courses, research, trade journals/events, third-party professionals, books, or podcasts.

Key points include:

• Skills needed to operate business effectively

• Most challenging part of job

• Most effective form of business education

Read the full article, How U.S. Company Leaders Really Work, on AveGroup.com.