Odds of Getting In
In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft while still in college, leading the charge in the computer programming wave. Bill took the title of CEO, and the two men made history and an obscene amount of money.
Since then, thousands of people with great ideas, mostly in the tech world, have founded their own companies and become CEO. That's one way to do it. You don't even need a college degree, much less a master's degree, to reach the top. Just a whole lot of luck, timing, and an original idea. It's so easy that we won't even talk about it anymore.
The traditional way of reaching the top level of the C-suite, and particularly for the chicken processing industry, is a longer road. A college degree is pretty much mandatory, and an MBA helps quite a bit as well.
Experience in the food industry in senior management, particularly poultry and beef processing, increases the odds. Oh, also try to be directly related to the family that owns the company. That works out pretty well.
The bottom line, or net take-away (these are really useful business terms, by the way), is it comes down to how good a leader, networker, and strategist you are. It's a combination of who you know and what you know, with a dash of potential and luck.
Many aspire to the top rung of the corporate ladder, but few get there. Take heart, for it's not an all-or-nothing proposal. If your career stalls as a chief operating officer or vice president, you've still done pretty well for yourself.