Russell Reynolds Automotive Executive Study_Changed Conditions Ahead_Oct...

Automotive Executive Study 2015:
Changed Conditions Ahead
R510009 - rr-0066 - Automotive Executive Study v10.indd 1 09/10/2015 11:52

2
Contents
Executive Summary 3
Automotive Executive:
From Car Guy to Mobility Leader
4
Chief Executive Officer:
Gearing Up for Transformation
8
Chief Technology Officer/Research and Development Officer:
Engineering the Future of Mobility
11
Chief Marketing Officer:
A Multi-platform Strategy
15
Sample and Methodology 18

3
Executive Summary
The automotive industry is entering an age of digital disruption: From the nature of the product itself to the process by
which it is engineered, sourced and produced, dramatic changes are afoot. Even the players in the market and the way
these products reach the end consumer are changing.
To better understand the impact of this shift on the industry’s leadership talent, Russell Reynolds Associates studied the
profiles of senior executives from leading automotive companies around the world, including a psychometric analysis of
the group’s supporting and hindering traits in the face of the anticipated challenges. We focused on three leading roles,
analyzing the current profiles and future requirements for the chief executive officer (CEO); the chief technology, or
research and development, officer (CTO or R&DO); and the chief marketing officer (CMO).
We found a very homogeneous group of executives and surprisingly little change in the typical profile over the past
few years despite the pending transformation. We also found that the psychometric traits common to this group of
executives as a whole are clearly differentiated from the rest of the general senior-leadership population—both for good
and for bad. While relatively innovative and open to change, for example, these executives tend to lack the collaborative
and risk-taking predisposition generally required to make disruptive changes.
As a result, we see a legitimate need to boost the diversity of skill sets, competencies and perspectives found within
these executive ranks. As the industry shifts, auto executives as a whole will need to excel in vision and strategy setting
and have the courage to take well-calculated risks. CEOs, for their part, must be astute in forging strategic partnerships
of equals, building teams with diverse skills and perspectives to lead the company’s innovation efforts.
CTOs/R&DOs, in turn, face a dual challenge: acting now to develop digital, mobile and native software solutions
to ensure the medium-term success of their products and making the strategic decisions necessary to lay the
groundwork for success in the long term.
The CMO role has seen the greatest increase in diversity by gender, industry and functional experience in recent
years. Companies can capitalize on this unique aspect of the role, equipping CMOs and their teams to spearhead the
organization’s transformation toward greater customer centricity and truly digital capabilities.
To ensure the automotive industry has the appropriate leadership for the transformation
we recommend that companies:
1. Plan for fundamental change: Review your corporate culture and the competencies of senior executives.
Develop a plan for talent transformation through a combination of selective retaining, focused development,
and strategic acquisition of critical talent and skills
2. Make the change happen: Foster diversity by supporting efforts to promote diverse candidates who can
challenge “the way things have always been done”
3. Recognize the power of cultural transformation: Today’s automotive leaders have an established profile that
has served the industry well to date. However, the industry’s pending transformation will require unleashing
the power of truly diverse thinking, skills and experience to conquer the coming challenges

4
Automotive Executive:
From Car Guy to Mobility Leader
The modern car is the product of decades of interlinked
improvements in power, safety and even connectivity.
These improvements have been driven by an unyielding
emphasis on innovation. Even so, the change has been
gradual and incremental. In contrast, the industry today
faces a true paradigm shift due to changing models
of automotive ownership, new mobility solutions and
the proliferation of digital technology. At the same
time, competitors are encroaching on the market from
entirely different industries with novel and contrasting
approaches to meeting customer wants.
This shift presents a very real challenge to the way things
have always been done and begs the questions: How will
the industry adjust? What will it mean for the leaders who
must guide the industry through the disruption?
A distinctive profile
To answer these questions, Russell Reynolds Associates
looked at 185 senior leaders who sit on the executive
management board of the world’s top carmakers (original
equipment manufacturers, or OEMs) and their Tier 1
automotive suppliers. We analyzed and mapped out the
profile changes taking place for these executives as
disruption approaches, dividing them into two groups:
those appointed before 2013 and those appointed in 2013
or later.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, our study of the demographic
profile and educational and career experience of these
executives reveals an overwhelmingly homogeneous
group at the top of the industry. The similarities begin
with the demographics of the population, which is almost
entirely male (92 percent), although there have been
slightly more senior female executive appointments since
2013 (Exhibit 1).
Most executives (75 percent) are nationals of the country
in which their employer is headquartered and have had no
significant residential work experience in other countries
(Exhibit 2).
The distinctive profile of the automotive executive may well be a factor in the industry’s success to date; yet
there are elements in this profile that may hinder—rather than enable—fundamental transformation if these
elements are not balanced by complementary skill sets, competencies and perspectives. We believe today’s car
guys need to evolve into tomorrow’s mobility leaders.
Exhibit 1
Gender of Automotive executives
Exhibit 2
Executives’ Nationality and
International Experience
Exhibit 3
origin of executive appointments
TOTAL SAMPLE
EXECUTIVES APPOINTED TO ROLE BEFORE 2013
EXECUTIVES APPOINTED TO ROLE 2013
OR LATER
8%92%
6%94%
11%89%
Yes No
Same
nationality as
company’s
HQ?
Have
non-HQ
geographical
work
experience?
75%
34%
25%
66%
Internal Group External
Appointments
before 2013
Appointments
in 2013 and
later15%
7%
67%
26%26%
59%

5
There is deep camaraderie as well: It would not be an
understatement to describe the industry as tightly knit,
given that 74 percent of all executives prior to 2013 were
internally promoted or appointed from within the group
of top carmakers and suppliers. There even has been
an increase in internal appointments since 2013 at the
expense of hiring from the group as a whole (Exhibit 3). In
addition, 67 percent of the executives appointed before
2013 have only automotive industry experience, and this
ratio has increased to 93 percent for those appointed
since 2013 (Exhibit 4).
Finally, tenure appears to be a rigid requirement for
success in the industry since the average executive, at
the time of appointment into his or her current role, had
spent 13 years with that same employer—although the
trend is moving toward less heavily tenured executives,
with a median tenure of 10 years for those hired after 2013.
Given these findings, we believe that the existing
makeup of the typical executive population has the
effect of filtering out diverse and potentially valuable
perspectives, limiting the scope of leadership views on
the opportunities and threats that lie ahead.
Pragmatic and Innovative,
But Is that Enough?
To gain a deeper understanding of the typical leadership
profile, Russell Reynolds Associates next analyzed
proprietary psychometric data for 160 automotive
executives at the C-suite and vice president levels. We did
this across 60 different criteria and compared the results
against an average executive profile calculated from more
than 5,000 data points gathered from the top ranks of
corporations across all sectors worldwide.
Exhibit 4
Have work experience outside of
Automotive?
Yes No
OR LATER
67%33%
93%7%
Automotive executives as a
population tend to be
homogeneous both “inside and
out.” They are characterized by
an aggregate of 29 relatively
subtle but statistically
significant attributes they have
in common such as poise and
assertiveness. In contrast, the
average industry executive is
defined by only 10 to 15
statistically distinct attributes.

6
Exhibit 5
Statistically significant attributes for Automotive executives compared with the
average executive profile
Exhibit 6
Statistically significant attributes for consumer executives vs. average cross sectors
These executives are
consistently direct
and assertive in
communication style
and are utilitarian in
work relationships
with others. This
makes them
unyielding and
zero-sum in approach
rather than naturally
collaborative
TRAITS THAT WILL HINDER TRAITS THAT WILL HELP
5% 14%
Utilitarian approach to others Emotionally stable
19%
Poised
16%
Consistent across audiences
14%
Directive
19%
Assertive
They are poised
and unflustered
in the face of
changes and
challenges
Automotive executives
are comfortable with
existing processes,
which have been
perfected over years of
incremental innovation
and are unlikely to enjoy
the chaos of disruptive
innovation
These
executives are
quick to act on
new information
to bring about
profitable
changes
17%6%
Conventional Pragmatic
15%
Hold strong convictions
This group can be a
difficult audience to
ideas that differ from
their core beliefs and
presumptions
Automotive
executives
easily
comprehend
the value of
new ideas
5%
Enjoy well-defined activities
10%
Open to change
6%
Innovative
19%
Able to accelerate actions
11%
Perfectionist
13%
Forward thinking
13%
Comfortable with process
Consumer executives are by disposition disruptive and creative
… but require special handling
Fresh
thinking
10% Risk taking,
rule bending,
pragmatic
8%
Energized
by convincing
others
5.5%
Able to
anticipate
7.5% Very focused
on others’ view
of them
9%
Prone to
taking things
seriously
6%

7
Psychometric attributes are neither good nor bad but
reflect an individual’s or a population’s predispositions,
which may be advantages or hindering factors relative to
specific circumstances. In the face of a disruptive change
such as digital transformation, automotive executives
exhibit competencies that should help them but also
possess a number of predispositions that may hinder
them (Exhibit 5).
For example, automotive executives tend to be pragmatic
(19 percent more so than the average executive). They are
often forward thinking, open to change and innovative.
In addition, they typically are resilient and action and
achievement oriented. Where they see a need for
improvement, these executives will move quickly and
efficiently to fix the issue.
At the same time, these executives are perfectionists,
are frequently assertive in their communication style,
and have a direct and utilitarian approach to others.
They tend to hold a preference for working solo and for
implementing linear processes and have a strong sense
of conviction and confidence in their own thinking. As a
result, they can be poor at collaborative communication.
These competencies all form part of a long-established
auto executive profile. However, we believe the emphasis
on extreme operational excellence and perfected
processes and the lack of natural collaborative skills will
hurt, rather than help, in an age in which competitors are
often agile and collaborative in their approach to work,
with a willingness to challenge pre-existing modes of
thinking and to demolish and rebuild ideas from scratch.
In response, automotive companies should work to
cultivate more entrepreneurial attributes among senior
executives and their teams, promoting a “startup like”
culture that tolerates failure as a necessary step on the
road to innovation and change.
Redesigning the Specifications
Given these findings, we believe the coming paradigm
shift is likely to stretch the industry’s current leaders. To
build new skills and perspectives quickly, we recommend
hiring from industries that already have undergone a
significant disruption, such as the mobile phone industry,
and are looking for competencies and leadership
attributes that are in short supply in the automotive
industry today but could be required in a transformation.
Consumer sector executives, for example, have a higher-
than-average predisposition toward fresh thinking, risk
taking, rule bending, and the ability to anticipate change
and convince others of their opinions, making these
professionals potentially well-suited for tackling the
challenges of disruptive change (Exhibit 6).
At the same time, automotive leaders must be aware that
there will be major cultural barriers for those executives
brought in from outside to challenge the current
thinking. In response, a common understanding must be
established within a company of the need for change and
a plan and willingness to properly integrate new hires in
a way that allows them to have an impact on the existing
culture.
Given that a substantial proportion of automotive
executives is internally grown, companies hoping to effect
fundamental change must also review internal promotion
processes for possible latent and unintended biases.
Affirmative action may be needed in order to better
promote those who have unique perspectives on markets
or trends that should be heard at the senior management
level.
Our Conclusions
ɳɳ Current automotive executives have a distinctive profile that has served them well in
the past. However, the profile has changed surprisingly little in recent years despite a
shared understanding that the industry is undergoing significant transformation
ɳɳ Automotive leaders are often perfectionists, with a direct and utilitarian approach.
While they have the ability to see the coming industry transformation, they may
lack the collaborative ability and risk-taking disposition necessary to manage the
disruptive change
ɳɳ Companies should revisit their hiring and promotion processes to prevent the
reflexive rewarding of profiles like their own, and instead cultivate employees
with diverse skill sets, backgrounds and perspectives across every level of the
organization. This new approach may include hiring selectively from outside the
industry, as a team consisting only of insiders may not be able to change quickly and
thoroughly enough in all the functions and business areas affected

8
Chief Executive Officer:
Gearing Up for Transformation
Rooted in Operations and Finance
Much as in the larger automotive executive population,
there are quite a number of similarities across the ranks
of automotive CEOs. As we analyzed chief executives
across the world’s major carmakers and suppliers, we
found that they, on average, are white, male and 60 years
old, slightly older than the average Fortune 250 (F250)
CEO (Exhibit 7). They are likely to have no experience
outside of automotive, as 57 percent of automakers’ CEOs
and 63 percent of automotive suppliers’ CEOs have spent
their entire career in the industry (Exhibit 8).
CEOs are often internal appointments as well, with 73% of
CEO appointments before 2013 offered to employees of
the company itself, increasing to 78% in more recent years
(Exhibit 9).
Beyond these demographic similarities, differences
do emerge between the CEOs of OEMs and their Tier 1
suppliers, owing to the approach these companies have
taken to growth in recent years. For example, among
OEMs, CEOs most commonly held head of production,
supply chain or sales roles immediately preceding their
current appointment, while Tier 1 CEOs are most likely to
have come from a chief financial officer or divisional head
role (Exhibit 10).
We also find a stronger emphasis on RD experience
among OEMs than in the population of Tier 1 CEOs,
among whom there is an emphasis on merger and
acquisition-related skills such as finance (Exhibit 11).
Despite the variation in automotive background between
the CEOs of OEMs and suppliers, the similarity of these
executives once again speaks to the lack of diversity
of both experience and perspective. We believe boards
and the CEOs themselves must take this into account,
reviewing their preparedness for new challenges to the
industry and, consequently, to their role.
CEOs will spearhead the transformation. Not only
must they set the vision, but they must encourage
innovation and risk taking as well. One person can
do only so much, however; CEOs must also build a
diverse and skillful executive team—shaping the
next generation of leaders—and excel at forging
strategic partnerships.
Exhibit 7
Age of CEOs of OEM, Tier 1 and F250
Companies
Exhibit 8
CEOs’ industry experience
F250
OEM
Tier 1
81 and above
0%
5%
0%
71-80
5%
5%
0%
66-70
11%
10%
16%
61-65
37%
33%
39%
56-60
26%
24%
30%
51-55
21%
14%
11%
46-50
0%
5%
2%
41-45
0%
5%
2%
Industrial goods
Technology
Energy/resources
Building and construction materials
Auditing
Consulting
5%
5%
11%
63%
5%
5%
5%
Transportation
Chemical and process industries
Industrial services
Accounting
Motorcycles
Shipping
Construction
Industrial goods
Energy/resources
Real estate
5%
5%
5%
5%
10%
57%
10%
10%
5%
10%
5%
have only automotive experience
57% of OEM CEOs
have only automotive experience
63% of Tier 1 CEOs

9
Trailblazing Is Not “Going It Alone”
Where previously the industry was focused on the future
car, it is now entering an era of mobility solutions, in
which manufacturing capabilities are less of a barrier to
entry than previously thought. People are not buying as
many cars as they once did, not least due to the sharing
economy, and manufacturing cars may no longer be the
sole domain of automotive companies.
Ten years ago, for example, it would have been
unthinkable for technology and software specialists
such as Tesla, Google and Apple to present a significant
threat to the automotive industry; yet this is the industry’s
potential future. Software specialists may even hold an
advantage over traditional manufacturers, as the car—
which already contains as many as 100 million lines of
code—is becoming an increasingly digital product.
Industry leaders must, therefore, look to innovate,
reframing their efforts from being carmakers populated
by car guys to being mobility solutions providers led by
mobility leaders. Automotive CEOs, for their part, must
balance their current focus on producing automobiles
or parts with an emphasis on shaping the market and
pre-empting customers’ emerging demands for a solution
beyond the traditional car.
Exhibit 9
origin of CEO appointments
Exhibit 10
Most popular role held preceding
appointment to CEO
Exhibit 11
Most popular functional experience
among CEOs
Internal Group External
Appointments
before 2013
Appointments
in 2013 and
later
3%
11%
78%
11%
24%
73%
OEM
Tier 1
9%
0%
Supply chain
9%
0%
Head of sales
5%
5%
Head of RD
9%
0%
Head of
production
14%
10%
CEO
20%
0%Chief financial
officer
9%
10%
Chief operating
officer
5%
25%
Division head
OEM
Tier 1
17%
0%
Sales and
marketing
6%
24%
Business
unit head
28%
0%
Geographic
leadership
28%
6%
RD/
engineering
28%
12%
Board
6%
41%
Finance
50%
35%
Operations
“The role of a traditional
automaker changes
dramatically. We become a
piece of the mobility ecosystem.
In this new world, we need to
figure out what we have to own
and what we don’t and to be a
great integrator of technologies
and services. We need to figure
out who are friends, who are
foes and how we turn our foes
into friends.”
Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor
Company in an interview with McKinsey
Company, October 2014

10
Doing so will require the CEO to be a strategist, as well
as a visionary, with an aptitude for risk taking. Perhaps
more importantly, successful CEOs will need to be
excellent listeners, surrounding themselves with digitally
savvy executives who can comprehend the scale of the
disruption and take the actions required to meet it.
The executives will come from diverse backgrounds,
markets and experiences, offering new perspectives and
ideas to the automotive-entrenched CEO. Women, for
example, have a growing impact on car-buying decisions,
and their input will help steer future growth in the right
direction. Innovation is taking place around the world, and
executives with international experience and a multi-
cultural background will contribute a greater awareness
and understanding of these shifts.
Mergers, acquisitions and partnering will also play an
important role in shaping the future of the automotive
industry, as they present opportunities to leapfrog
competitors by acquiring new technology skills, as well as
providing opportunities to innovate.
Tier 1 CEOs as a group are well-equipped to evaluate
potential deals and typically have the skills to close
those deals; however, the true challenge may come in
realizing the full value of these partnerships. Doing so
will require the ability to work as equals with partner
organizations, making the most of each other’s strengths.
In addition, these acquisitions and partnerships are
likely to take place with non-automotive companies;
in such circumstances, the CEO must be able to pre-
empt possible challenges of cultural fit with a rigorous
calibration of both companies’ culture.
We believe the absolutely crucial characteristics for the
automotive CEO of the future, therefore, boil down to
three simple but definitive competencies: engaging in
calculated risk taking, involving other voices and opinions
in the decision-making process, and being able to
evaluate and work within new partnerships as equals in
a clear and focused way. While the ideal CEO may appear
difficult to find, the primary solution to managing change
will be the ability to partner, both internally and externally,
giving voice to a variety of perspectives and building a
deep bench of truly diverse future leaders.
Our Conclusions
ɳɳ The profiles of current
automotive CEOs highlight
their similarity and
their deep automotive
background. Going forward,
however, automotive CEOs
will need to excel in vision
setting and strategy, having
the courage to take risks
and the open-mindedness
to take on a variety of new
perspectives and ideas
ɳɳ Externally, the CEO must
be astute in forging
partnerships in all their
forms, looking beyond
quantifiable due diligence
to find the right cultural
fit—an essential success
factor for any partnership of
equals
ɳɳ Internally, the CEO
must spearhead the
transformation of the entire
organization, embodying
and supporting innovation
while building a truly diverse
bench of future leaders

11
Chief Technology Officer/Research and Development Officer:
Engineering the Future of Mobility
Today’s CTO/RDO Profile
Russell Reynolds Associates took a close look at the
individuals who are responsible for the cutting-edge
research, engineering, technical application, and
development of cars and components at the highest
levels of the world’s major automotive OEMs and Tier 1
suppliers: the CTOs and the RDOs.
Our research found that tenure appears to be an
important component of the CTO/RDO profile, as
executives in these positions hold the longest tenure
among the automotive executives we analyzed. The
majority—63 percent—have been with their current
employer for more than 25 years, while close to 30
percent have spent more than 35 years with the same
company (Exhibit 12). Not surprisingly then, CTOs/RDOs
as a group are relatively mature: A third are over 60 years
old, another third are between ages 51 and 60, and a
meager 5 percent are under the age of 45 (Exhibit 13).
In addition, CTOs/RDOs are frequently internal
appointments—92 percent come from inside either the
company or the corporate group (Exhibit 14)—and are
100 percent male. They are unlikely to have had any work
experience outside the automotive industry, although
this statistic has shifted slightly since 2013 (Exhibit 15).
Among the 16 percent of CTOs/RDOs who have had
some out-of-industry experience, it often was an early-
career experience prior to committing decades to the car
industry.
This narrowness of focus goes even deeper as CTOs/
RDOs seldom hold experience in functions outside their
traditional domains—engineering, RD, technology and
product development. There has even been an increase
in the representation of pure engineering experience in
CTOs appointed since 2013, from 67 percent to 82 percent,
although there has also been a slight rise in the wider
range of functional experience outside the traditional
domain (Exhibit 16).
Consumers are becoming increasingly digital in the way they interface with the world. As automakers work
toward digital transformation, it is the chief technology officers or research and development officers and their
departments who must ensure that future mobility solutions are digitally integrated.
Exhibit 12
CTOs’/RDOs’ tenure with company to
date
Exhibit 13
CTOs’/RDOs’ age distribution
4%
17%
13%
21%
29%
0-5 years
6-10 years
11-15 years
16-20 years
21-25 years
26-30 years
31-35 years
36-40 years
4%
4%
8%
29%
5%
19%14%
33%
40-45
46-50
51-55
56-60
Over 61

12
These executives are highly educated, with approximately
10 percent holding a Ph.D. CTOs/RDOs are also
increasingly educated in business: Forty percent of
those appointed in 2013 or after hold an M.B.A. degree
compared with 14 percent among those appointed prior
to 2013 (Exhibit 17). However, their formal training is still
concentrated in the realm of automotive and mechanical
engineering rather than software engineering. Given
their relative maturity, they are also not likely to be digital
natives—those whose careers were shaped in the era of
digital technology. Our experience in recruiting digitally
transformative leaders in other industries suggests that
such leaders generally are in their 40s or under.
As a result, while the current tranche of engineers has
added a number of successful digital offerings to the
manufacturing process, we believe many will need to
become more digitally savvy in their approach and
processes. Rather than acquiring software to fit existing
hardware, for example, they will need to develop native
software specifically for the car and build the hardware
around the software as a core offering. While today’s car
manufacturing processes are already technologically
advanced and data driven, these executives need to dig
deeper into opportunities for digital transformation at
every stage of the product value chain.
The Chief Engineers of the Future
To meet these challenges, tomorrow’s CTOs/RDOs
will need to surround themselves with diverse teams of
digitally savvy executives recruited from Internet-based
businesses and beyond, gathering everyone into the
same room—whether physically or virtually—to work
collaboratively. As with the successful CEO, an open mind
to other voices and perspectives will be essential. Even
the CTO/RDO himself or herself may well emerge from
the digital community, bringing a crucial technical skill set
quite far from powertrain engineering.
In addition, these executives will need to become more
customer centric—better connected to the end customer
—developing the strong commercial acumen necessary
to understand not only the best technical products
but also the most appropriate solutions. Doing so will
require deeper thought and investment into studying
and addressing consumer needs. It will mean realizing
that a car is a set of systems—perhaps even just a set of
systems—to solve consumers’ mobility needs and wants.
Recognizing it will mean more fully leveraging consumer
data analytics and creating a continuum between
research and product development as new data reveal
changing consumer trends and desires.
We note that as cars become ever more intelligent, with
millions of lines of software code providing cutting-
edge technology and connectivity, there is a growing
security threat that must be managed. Already, auto
manufacturers are using expert hackers to expose
weaknesses in their systems, particularly following some
unfortunate incidents in which companies have been
forced to recall millions of cars due to software security
issues.
Exhibit 14
Origin of appointment into the role
Exhibit 15
CTOs’/RDOs’ industry experience
Internal
Group
External
11%
81%
8%
Yes No
HAVE WORK EXPERIENCE IN OTHER
INDUSTRIES?
OR LATER
87%13%
82%18%
Automotive
only
Aerospace
engineering
Metallurgy
Industrial
goods
8%
84%
4%
4%

13
This threat will not rest purely in the domain of the chief
information security officer, as in many other industries;
rather, CTOs/RDOs will be the ones responsible for
hiring cybersecurity experts for their teams and creating
new roles such as chief safety officer, responsible for
safeguarding the modern vehicle—or mobility solution—
from hackers.
With the right team in place and a renewed focus on
the consumer, CTOs/RDOs will also need strong
organizational and priority-setting skills to get their ideas
across. They will need to be in a position to articulate, and
pursue, calculated risk taking. They will also need to have
strong relationships across the firm, and influence across
the organization’s many functions and businesses.
We note that the sheer number and complexity
of possible future automotive solutions may force
CTOs/RDOs and their teams to reorganize areas of
responsibility. In the past, the work of RD has been
divided into two time horizons: short to midterm and
long term. Going forward, the split could take the shape
of a focus, on the one hand, on hardware and software
integration for new products and services and, on the
other hand, on the company’s digital strategy and its
associated ecosystem and partnership development.
Finally, while only 5 percent of CEOs come from this
role today, we believe the CTOs’/RDOs’ experience in
making crucial, calculated judgments about the trajectory
of the company’s future products and solutions make
them strong potential candidates for the CEO role in the
future in an industry that is increasingly characterized by
constant and fast-paced change.
Exhibit 16
Popular functional experience (% of CTOs
with this experience in their career)
Exhibit 17
highest educational qualification
67%
22%
33%
11%
0%
33%
0%
82%
24%
12%
24%
18%
24%
24%
Engineering
Research and
development
Technology
Operations
Product
development
Division
head
Geographic
head
Appointed
before 2013
Appointed 2013
and later
Bachelor’s
Diploma
Master’s
M.B.A.
Ph.D.
27%
9%
9%
32%
Across CTOs/
RDOs appointed
before 2013
27%
13%
13%
7%
40%
Across CTOs/
RDOs appointed
2013 and later
23%

14
Our Conclusions
ɳɳ CTOs/RDOs need to become more digital in their
approach and processes, developing native software
and taking advantage of increasing opportunities to
digitally transform both the product and the process
ɳɳ Simultaneously, these CTOs/RDOs need to
surround themselves with diverse teams of digitally
savvy executives, recruiting from Internet-based
businesses and beyond and incentivizing their teams
to work collaboratively
ɳɳ CTOs/RDOs of the future will also need to be
more connected to the consumer, developing the
commercial acumen and understanding of data
analytics to develop not only the best technical
products but also the most ideal solutions for the
end customer
ɳɳ Automotive companies should review the possibility
of splitting the CTO/RDOs responsibilities not
only based on the time horizons involved, but also
on the focus: the automotive CTO/RDO needs
to develop native software and integrated digital
capabilities, and also lay the groundwork for success
in ecosystem and partnership development
“The role of CTO has evolved from
leading the development of
automotive technologies that
deliver attributes, such as safety
and fuel economy, to now
embracing the holistic customer
experience, where technology is a
significant differentiator between
brands. Today’s CTOs need to be
comfortable working across a
broad range of technologies, often
requiring collaboration with
partners outside the automotive
industry.”
Paul Mascarenas, Special Venture Partner, Fontinalis
Partners, former CTO, Ford Motor Company

15
Chief Marketing Officer:
A Multi-platform Strategy
The Makings of an Automotive CMO
Chief marketing officers, like the majority of the
automotive executives we analyzed, have largely spent
their career within the car industry (Exhibit 18). This is a
male-dominated role (Exhibit 19) often given to internal
employees rather than those outside the company or
group of companies, although there has been a significant
increase in the proportion of outside appointments since
2013 (Exhibit 20).
Simultaneously, 77 percent of the CMOs in our sample
have been with the company for less than 10 years and
66 percent for less than five, suggesting there could
be relatively fresh talent and perspectives in this role
compared with other key roles (Exhibit 21). This may also
be attributable to a shift in the industry toward separation
between the marketing and sales functions.
Among internal appointments, the industry appears to
prefer candidates with general management experience
and brand familiarity on top of traditional marketing skills.
This finding is based on the observation that management
experience is more widely represented in the sample
than is sales and marketing experience when it comes to
appointments from within, as opposed to a preference for
pure marketing, branding or sales executives when hiring
outside the company or group (Exhibit 22).
Over the years, this population has seen some increase
in diversity through a growing number of external
appointments, some timely improvement in gender
diversity—possibly due to the growing influence of
women on car buying—and diversity in functional
experience, based on the differences between CMOs
appointed before 2013 and those appointed in 2013 or
later.
While changes in the CMO profile are taking place at a faster pace than for the CEO and CTO/RDO profiles, the
change may still be too modest and reflect a lack of urgency relative to the scale of the transformation taking
place in the industry. This is particularly true given the changes in the field of digital marketing, as a rapidly
growing share of automotive advertising is moving to online and mobile media, with manufacturers creating more
and more ad campaigns designed primarily for digital consumption.
Digital transformation and a renewed focus on the customer are inspiring new ways of marketing in automotive.
The CMO is emerging as a leading agent behind any automotive organization’s digital transformation and as a
primary employer and integrator of outside-the-industry talent.
Exhibit 18
CMOs’ industry experience
Exhibit 19
Gender distribution of CMOs
Exhibit 20
Percentage of CMOs appointed from
outside the company
3%
5%
72%
Tobacco
Sports
Consulting
Information
technology
Leisure and
hospitality
Consumer
products
Marketing
agency
Luxury
retail
Automotive
only
3%
5%
3%
3%
3%3%
EXECUTIVES APPOINTED TO ROLE 2013 OR LATER
100%
4%96%
0%
58%
Before 2013 Since 2013

16
Re-engineering vs. Bolted-On Changes
Automotive industry respondents to Russell Reynolds
Associates’ Digital Pulse 2015 Survey identified marketing
as the function with the highest potential for driving
digital transformation for their company and industry, not
least because it is the most immediately and radically
affected by digital technology. However, our research
yielded only five identifiable executives holding the title
head of digital marketing across the 42 automakers
surveyed in this study.
Though a digital marketing unit may exist in some shape
or form in most or all of these automakers, this is a
qualitative measure of the value—or lack thereof—being
ascribed to the digital marketing role in the industry today.
In contrast, demand is increasing in the industry for
search engine optimization and search engine marketing
directors, heads of business analytics and platform
specialists responsible for developing services native to
web, mobile and other specialized digital interfaces. In
fact, filling these positions is a challenge given the high
demand and shortage of skilled talent.
For all five identified heads of digital marketing, their
digital marketing skills are rooted in career experiences
outside the automotive industry. The same is likely to be
true for the rest of the industry’s digital marketing roles:
They will need to come from outside of the industry. The
chief marketing officer will then have the additional
challenge of integrating these individuals, their skills
and their valuable digital-native perspectives into the
marketing function and the wider company.
Marketing To the Customer and to the
Board
The modern CMO has two audiences—the customer
and the organization—and there are important changes
happening across both these populations. For the
customer, CMOs must learn to do more by doing
less if they are to cut through the massive data and
media overload that consumers experience each
day. Simultaneously, the CMO must work within the
organization to make sure the product that the customer
finds in the showroom is the best offering on the market
for the customer’s needs and preferences at that time—
an effort that will have begun five years earlier during the
product development stage.
The CMO will be responsible for integrating innovative
aftersales services into the company’s marketing
platforms, first to monetize additional services (such as
scheduled maintenance) and, second, to fortify existing
customers’ loyalty and retain them for the succeeding
purchase, say, 10 years down the road.
The automotive industry is not a digital marketing
laggard; however, there are opportunities to leapfrog
the competition, not least by clearly articulating CMOs’
changing responsibilities and ensuring that these
executives are equipped for their new role. In addition,
companies would do well to lend a more attentive ear to
the CMO, who tends to be the voice of the customer and
a digital evangelist on the executive team. The marketing
function has evolved from one interested in selling the car
to the customer to one that is increasingly also selling the
customer’s ideas back to the organization.
“The increasing connectivity of
cars and digitization of the
buying process require a new
type of automotive leader. The
role of the CMO is to steer the
brand to the digital age and to
transform the automobile
manufacturer into a mobility
solution provider.”
Tina Müller, Chief Marketing Officer, member of the
Management Board, Opel Group
Exhibit 21
CMOs’ time spent with the company
prior to becoming CMO
6%
11% 66%
8%
3%
36-40 years
31-35 years
21-30 years
11-20 years
6-10 years
0-5 years
6%

17
Exhibit 22
Popular functional experience (% of CMOs with this experience in their career)
33% 29%
21%
Marketing
General management
Sales
Marketing
Branding
21%
24%
19%
Joint sales
and marketing
PRECEDING FUNCTION
OF EXTERNAL HIRES
PRECEDING FUNCTION
OF INTERNAL HIRES
Our Conclusions
ɳɳ The CMO role today has the greatest potential for change relative to the other executive roles we studied,
given it is the most immediately and radically affected by digital technology. With this in mind, automotive
organizations should consider the merits of separating marketing and sales, boosting the company’s digital
efforts and sharpening its customer orientation
ɳɳ CMOs and their teams are not all brought up through the ranks of automotive companies, as are many other
C-level executives and staff. As a result, they must be flexible and adaptable if they are to make full use of
their skills, as they often bring differing perspectives and experience to the organization
ɳɳ CMOs can be the digital evangelists on the executive team, bringing new ways of working; as such, they have
a unique opportunity to integrate non-automotive executives into the organization and leverage them to
spearhead the company’s transformation

18
Sample and Methodology
For the purposes of our study, we selected our sample of companies as below:
ɳɳ Car Brands: Top OEM brands by Brand Ranking and their relevant peers
ɳɳ Carmakers: Top OEM groups (carmakers with multiple brands) by EBITDA
ɳɳ Automotive Suppliers: The world’s top Tier 1 companies (i.e., immediate suppliers to automotive original equipment
manufacturers) by EBITDA
Car Brands and Carmakers
Car Brands (Brands) Carmakers (Groups)
Acura
Aston Martin
Audi
Bentley
BMW
Buick
Cadillac
Chevrolet
Chrysler
Dacia
Fiat
Ford
GMC
Hyundai
Infiniti
Jaguar
Lamborghini
Land Rover
Lexus
Lincoln
Maruti Suzuki
Maserati
Mazda
Mercedes-Benz
MINI
Nissan
Opel
Porsche
Renault
Rolls-Royce
SEAT
Skoda
Toyota
Vauxhall
Volkswagen
Volvo
BMW AG
BYD Company
Daimler AG
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Ford Motor Company
Geely Automobile
Holdings
General Motors
Honda Motor Co.
Hyundai Motor Company
Isuzu Motors
Jaguar Land Rover
Mahindra Mahindra
Mazda Motor Corporation
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation
Renault-Nissan Alliance
SAIC Motor Corporation
Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries)
Suzuki Motor Corporation
Tata Motors
Tesla Motors
Toyota Motor Corporation
Volkswagen AG
Tier 1 Suppliers
Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd.
Autoliv, Inc.
Bridgestone Corporation
Continental AG
Delphi Automotive plc
Denso Corporation
Faurecia
GKN plc
Goodyear Tire Rubber
Hyundai Mobis
Johnson Controls
Lear Corporation
Magna International
Michelin SCA
Sumitomo Electric Industries
Tenneco Inc.
Toyota Boshoku Corporation
Toyota Industries Corporation
TRW Automotive Holdings
Valeo Groupe
ɳɳ Automotive executives include members of the executive management team or equivalent of the relevant
companies, as displayed on each company’s official website. Profiles of 185 executives were included in this study
ɳɳ In addition, we analyzed proprietary psychometric data for 160 automotive executives at the C-suite and vice
president levels and compared that against an average executive profile calculated from more than 5,000 data
points
ɳɳ Chief executive officer or equivalent in the sample companies included 42 individuals representing 22 carmakers
and 20 supplier CEOs
ɳɳ Chief technology officer/research and development officer is defined as the role in charge of the development of
new product technologies and their application to current and future products. This includes positions responsible
for overall engineering and/or product development activities in the specific company or equivalent, and excludes
Information Technology as a business support/shared services function. The profiles of 25 individuals were
analyzed and included in the study
ɳɳ Chief marketing officer is defined as the individual with fullest oversight of the car brand’s marketing activities. The
profiles of 35 individuals were included in the study
ɳɳ Information gathered on executives includes publicly available information about their demographics (age, gender,
nationality), employment (current title, company/industry experience, tenure in company and in industry) and other
information (highest educational degree, field of study, international work experience)
ɳɳ Information on executives was sourced from a combination of official company publications and verified
information on BoardEx and LinkedIn. Information on EBITDA was sourced from Standard Poor’s Capital IQ
platform

19
© Copyright 2015, Russell Reynolds Associates. All rights reserved.
EMEA
ɳɳ Amsterdam
ɳɳ Barcelona
ɳɳ Brussels
ɳɳ Copenhagen
ɳɳ Dubai
ɳɳ Frankfurt
ɳɳ Hamburg
ɳɳ Helsinki
ɳɳ Istanbul
ɳɳ London
ɳɳ Madrid
ɳɳ Milan
ɳɳ Munich
ɳɳ Oslo
ɳɳ Paris
ɳɳ Stockholm
ɳɳ Warsaw
ɳɳ Zurich
Global Offices
Americas
ɳɳ Atlanta
ɳɳ Boston
ɳɳ Buenos Aires
ɳɳ Calgary
ɳɳ Chicago
ɳɳ Dallas
ɳɳ Houston
ɳɳ Los Angeles
ɳɳ Mexico City
ɳɳ Minneapolis/
St. Paul
ɳɳ Montreal
ɳɳ New York
ɳɳ Palo Alto
ɳɳ San Francisco
ɳɳ São Paulo
ɳɳ Stamford
ɳɳ Toronto
ɳɳ Washington, D.C.
Asia/Pacific
ɳɳ Beijing
ɳɳ Hong Kong
ɳɳ Melbourne
ɳɳ Mumbai
ɳɳ New Delhi
ɳɳ Seoul
ɳɳ Shanghai
ɳɳ Singapore
ɳɳ Sydney
ɳɳ Tokyo
Russell Reynolds Associates is a global leader in assessment, recruitment and succession planning for boards of
directors, chief executive officers and key roles within the C-suite. With more than 370 consultants in 46 offices around
the world, we work closely with public, private and nonprofit organizations across all industries and regions. We help our
clients build teams of transformational leaders who can meet today’s challenges and anticipate the digital, economic,
environmental and political trends that are reshaping the global business environment.
Find out more at www.russellreynolds.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RRAonLeadership.

RussellReynolds.com

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