Executives – a closer look at our respondents
For this survey, we interviewed 527 high-level executives. To provide us with diverse insights into every executive level, we gathered an even spread of CEOs/presidents/chairmen, C-level executives, heads of business unit/business division and heads of department, with approximately 25% per group.
By assigning our respondents to five departments, we were able to evaluate interdisciplinary differences. Most of our respondents work in corporate & business development (25%), followed by strategy and human resources (HR) (24% each). 20% of the respondents stated that they work in the information & technology department (IT); the digital department is the smallest with 7%.
Our sample is split between the upstream (product-driven) and downstream (service-driven) automotive markets, with a primary focus on vehicle manufacturers and suppliers (upstream, 78%).
More than one-third of the respondents are based in Europe, while 15% come from North America. 71 executives, or 13%, work in the Mature Asia region of Japan and South Korea. 7-10% each originate from China, India & ASEAN, South America and Eastern Europe. The Rest of the World is represented by the remaining 3%.
27% of our respondents work in companies with revenues of between US$1 billion and US$10 billion, and 21% in companies with revenues higher than US$10 billion.
The survey was conducted in part online, and took place between December 2018 and January 2019. 30 experts were additionally interviewed separately to gather further and more personal input for our evaluation.
