Background

The business is the £110million turnover UK subsidiary of a privately owned German global first tier automotive manufacturer. From the UK it supplies Jaguar, Rover, Volvo and Ford UK/Spain.

However they had major delivery issues with the result that costs for couriers and urgent transport needs (special transport) had escalated from a budget of £200,000 to £1.2Million the previous financial year and was on track to equal or exceed it this financial year. On top of this the customers were very unhappy with the service they were receiving and were threatening to de-list the business.

As career experts with over twenty years’ experience of working with Executives, we can identify several reasons why many fail to move their career onwards and upwards. From our experience we have identified the following top five reasons which conspire to prevent Executives moving their careers forwards.

Lack of a clearly defined and realistic career goal

All too often the careers for many Executives are managed and developed by events, opportunities or other people. It is relatively rare that we find an Executive who has taken responsibility and managed his or her career through a clearly defined path.

Most Executives respond to external factors such as the call from the headhunter, promotion within their current organisation, or just spotting that plum job in the Appointments section of The Sunday Times.