In conjunction with The University of Texas, McCombs School of Business, Chief Outsiders solicited insights from mid-market CEOs to gain new knowledge around growth drivers. The study was conducted in late 2011 with nearly 200 CEOs participating from 27 industries. In addition to profiling the general behaviors relative to growth orientations, the research team uncovered a major key insight never before reported in a mid-market CEO study.

Key Insights

• Companies are Operations or Market-Oriented – The analysis conducted by the UT research team discovered two distinctive kinds of companies – operations-oriented and market-oriented firms. Operations-oriented firms make up about 55% of mid-market companies.
• Market-Oriented Companies Experience Higher Growth and Are Better at Measurable Gains – Both types of firms see good growth opportunities, but the market-oriented firms are better able to translate those opportunities into measurable gains.
• Operations-Oriented Companies Can Grow Faster Than Peers – When operations-oriented companies have existing strengths in or develop strengths in marketing disciplines, they grow faster than their industry peers.

General Findings

• While 83% believe the outlook of the company’s future is promising, perceived growth rates compared to peers was much lower as 45% believe they were growing at the same rate or slower than their peers and 55% believe they are growing faster.
• The majority of CEOs (64%) spend most of their time defining and guiding future growth. When they meet with their leadership teams, attention is largely split between current issues (44%) and future initiatives (32%).
• Most companies reported that they did not maintain separate sales and marketing leadership roles (58%), although nearly one-third reported that sales and marketing executives were peers (31%).
• As a whole, surveyed CEOs perceive they are FAIR to GOOD in market-developing disciplines. Having a clear vision and mission, along with having solid market knowledge was typical. However, most CEOs were critical of their ability to track marketing effectiveness.