Two of three: the only non-Anglo-American companies registered in the career database were UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. | Image: Michael Buholzer / Keystone

The majority of the world’s top managers come from 20 entities, including Credit Suisse and UBS, according to a study conducted by the University of Lausanne. And they represent a springboard for a great international career.

This research focused on the companies listed in 2018 on the Forbes Global 2000 list (an annual ranking of the world’s largest companies published in the American magazine Forbes), whose executive profiles appear in the BoardEx database. The scientists studied the backgrounds of more than 16,000 executives from nearly 1,400 companies based mainly in the US and UK, with Deutsche Bank, UBS and Credit Suisse being the only non-Anglo companies on the list.

It shows that “a small group of companies has a large influence on the global market”, says Felix Bühlmann, a professor of sociology at the University of Lausanne and co-author of the publication. “This is the first study of the structuring of elite networks of global companies through the concept of career platforms. Until now, the links among companies have been analysed through the members of their board of directors”, he says.

Bühlmann mentions the establishment of a “prestige hierarchy”: the most prestigious organisations are those capable of redistributing the most top executives in large companies, with the prize going to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Switzerland, with Credit Suisse and UBS, is also very central and acts as a bridge between Europe and the United States. André Mach, a political scientist at the University of Lausanne and an outsider to the study, comments: “Thanks to the use of large databases, this research makes it possible to highlight career paths on an international scale that also reflect the skills valued for leading large global companies”.

F. Bühlmann et al: How career hubs shape the global corporate elite. Wiley Online Library (2023).