CIO & LEADER-Issue-01-April 2018 (1)

Around The Tech
By the Book
Based on an in-depth analysis of over
2,600 leaders drawn from a database
of more than 17,000 CEOs and C-suite
executives, as well 13,000 hours of
interviews, and two decades of experience
advising CEOs and executive
boards, Elena L. Botelho and Kim R.
Powell overturn the myths about what
it takes to get to the top and succeed.
Their groundbreaking research was
the featured cover story in the May-
June 2017 issue of Harvard Business
Review. It reveals the common attributes
and counterintuitive choices that
set apart successful CEOs—lessons
that we can apply to our own careers.
Much of what we hear about who
gets to the top, and how, is wrong.
Myth: Those who become chief executives
set their sights on the C-suite at
an early age. Reality: In fact, over 70%
of the CEOs didn’t have designs on the
corner office until later in their careers.
Myth: You must graduate from an
elite college. Reality: In fact, only 7%
of CEOs in the dataset are Ivy League
graduates--and 8% didn't graduate
from college at all. To become a CEO
you need a flawless résumé.
makingheadlines
The #DeleteFacebook hashtag has been doing the rounds on Twitter. As if to
add insult to the injury, users are now deleting their Facebook accounts. Tesla's
CEO, Elon Musk is the latest to join the bandwagon. He deleted his verified Facebook
pages for SpaceX and Tesla after being challenged by a user on Twitter.
However, the #deleteFacebook issue is a bit of a deja vu moment for the company,
which has been embroiled in a series of controversies for the last decade.
Almost eight years ago, an online event christened 'Quit Facebook Day' was
started by a group of dissatisfied Facebook users. Their site, QuitFacebookDay.
com, asked users to "commit to quit" Facebook on May 31 in 2010 by signing their
name or Twitter handle to the list of pledges. The reason was identical - most
users were concerned about the privacy of their data. However, the boycott was
a major flop after just over 30,000 of the site's 500 million users deleted their
Facebook accounts.
The gender gap in pay has narrowed since 1980,
but it has remained relatively stable over the past 15
years or so. In 2017, women earned 82% of what men
earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis
of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time
workers in the United States. Based on this estimate,
it would take an extra 47 days of work for women to
earn what men did in 2017.
Why does a gender pay gap still persist?
Much of the gap has been explained by measurable
factors such as educational attainment, occupational
segregation and work experience. The narrowing of
the gap is attributable in large part to gains women
have made in each of these dimensions.
But other factors that are difficult to measure,
including gender discrimination, may contribute to the
ongoing wage discrepancy.
gender
bender
April 2018 | CIO&LEADER
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