Has old boy network had its day?

The
days of the Oxbridge-educated, old boys’ network of business leaders is coming
to an end, according to the latest research.

In
fact, today’s chief operating officer is more likely to have been educated
abroad and will have taken less time to reach the top.

A
study by Inspirational Development Coaching found that only 20 per cent of
today’s CEOs were educated at Oxford or Cambridge, compared to 60 per cent in
1984.

The
figures show that 18 years ago only 3 per cent were educated abroad, all from
the US, whereas today this has increased to 29 per cent – with 10 per cent from
Europe and 6 per cent from elsewhere.

Mary
Long, head of coaching at Inspirational Development, said the Oxbridge
universities were suffering because of a lack of specific business-related
courses: "While the Oxbridge universities remain indisputably at
world-class level, their curricula do not yet include business vocational
degrees in the same way as Harvard or Iseat do," she said.

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Furthermore,
an increasing number of British executives seek overseas education not only for
the subjects offered, but also to start networking internationally at the
earliest possible opportunity.

By Ross Wigham