The “SAMBAplus CEO Survey 2012”, the first joint survey of the Swiss organizations SAMBAplus and C-Talks (see box), is not surprising: 95 percent of the CEOs of the 100 top-selling companies in the country have an academic degree. Most of them in economics and social sciences (35 percent), with almost half of the latter additionally having a Master of Business Administration (MBA). The second largest group of Chief Executive Officers (CEO) in Switzerland are graduates from engineering and technical universities (22 percent).

Another indication of the high level of education is the large number of managers with a doctorate. Every tenth CEO has a doctorate. The younger squad in particular is characterized by an excellent school. A prime example is the 44-year-old Austrian Severin Schwan von Roche, who graduated in economics and law with a master's degree and later became a Dr. jur. did her doctorate.

An MBA as a guarantee for advancement?

Among the CEO with an MBA (see table) are such illustrious names as Joseph «Joe» Jimenez from Novartis, Joseph «Joe» Hogan from ABB, Michael Mack from Syngenta or Andreas Meyer from SBB. She and numerous other corporate executives obtained their MBA from a renowned business school abroad. Among the few female CEOs of Switzerland's 100 top-selling companies is a woman with an MBA: Christi L. Strauss, head of Nestlé's subsidiary Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW), with a degree from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, the birthplace of the MBA.