How to be a great CEO in 21st century Asia

The best CEOs make a huge difference to their companies. Those who rank in the top 20 percent of financial performance generate, on average, 2.8 times more total return to shareholders than average CEOs. Companies in the top quintile deliver 30 times more economic profit than the companies in the next three quintiles combined.

How do you become a great CEO? To answer that question, we identified 200 of them from around the world. Together, these 200 leaders have created $5 trillion more economic value than their peers. We interviewed 67 of them at length. While there is no simple recipe for success, we identified the six mindsets that characterize great CEOs.

• ?They act boldly, setting the direction of the business, and actively seeking significant opportunities. They raise the aspirations of the company, and they look for intersections of where their business and the market meet.
• They treat the soft stuff as the hard stuff. ?McKinsey research has found that companies that solve the soft stuff are more than twice as likely (79 percent to 30 percent) to execute a strategy successfully.
• They build high-performing leadership teams by starting with roles, not people, asking what the most important jobs are and then finding those who can do them. They design for overall functionality, bringing in a wide range of expertise.
• They help directors help the business by engaging the board, being being open, honest, and prompt about plans and problems. They also introduce the board to the company and connect them to managers.
• They make purpose an intrinsic part of the business model, knowing that testing strategy against purpose can open new areas of growth. Leading with purpose also enhances employee well-being and builds loyalty.?
• They focus on what only they can do. Because being a CEO is a 24/7 job they are self-disciplined, particularly over their use of time. They also build flexibility into their schedule to respond to the unexpected or simply to think. Managing personal effectiveness is about developing a sense of perspective, and then using that to see into the future.??

The heightened expectations and accountability around performance, as well as social and environmental issues, are putting CEOs in the spotlight more than ever. Yet, half of CEOs say they are not fully prepared for the role when they take it on. While it may be true that almost no one knows what it is like to be a CEO until they are one, there are ways to begin to prepare.

With that in mind, McKinsey & Company has launched the McKinsey Center for CEO Excellence , which focuses on guiding and developing CEOs of all tenures.?

The Center is McKinsey's new flagship institute for CEOs, designed to help them improve their performance and maximize their potential as they tackle the challenges of their leadership journey. It offers personalized insights from former top CEOs, a distinctive peer network and community, and customized support from world-class coaches to help leaders perform at the highest level and deliver on the ambitions they have for their organizations.

The inaugural program began on May 4, with 12 CEOs from across Asia-Pacific participating in a 2.5-day in-person Summit in Singapore. It includes leaders of companies from energy, banking, real estate, insurance, infrastructure, e-payments and more, with a combined market capitalization of approximately US$230 billion.

This inaugural cohort targeted at new, first-time CEOs, who have been in their role for up to two years, with experienced former global CEOs acting as advisors, working closely with McKinsey and the participants. Future cohorts will include CEOs of all tenures and backgrounds. A second cohort will be launched later this year, and the institute aims to reach more than 200 CEOs by 2025.