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Texas A&M started out as a little old rural ag school in the middle of nowhere. Over the past century and a half, the school has grown steadily and outpaced the country bumpkin stereotypes. And now? Well, we proudly turn out as many CEOs as almost anyone, except for several other public universities, and a bunch of private ones.
Six Aggies are Fortune 500 CEOs, the 6th most of any university in the country! https://t.co/x8FjRG1a0K #tamu pic.twitter.com/3C4iUc4SG8
— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) December 12, 2018
Pretty big deal, right? That’s why we talk about it so much.
Want to be a CEO? #Texas A&M is No. 1 among public US universites for producing CEOs worldwide http://t.co/XblIr98MXF #highered
— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) October 22, 2013
THIS!
— Kevin Sumlin (@CoachSumlin) July 17, 2015
No university graduates more Fortune 100 CEOs than Texas A&M - Houston Chronicle http://t.co/1yvErSpQfz
Flag generals, CEOS, & government officials have come out of the @AggieCorps. With the help of the Hollingsworth Center for Ethical Leadership, today's cadets are becoming well equipped to take on the leadership challenges of tomorrow! @TXAMFoundation: https://t.co/Dlk3CaqGxg pic.twitter.com/TanNLTuSFz
— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) April 9, 2019
Five schools lead the nation with three Fortune 100 CEO alums each. Four are Ivy Leagues. One is Texas A&M. http://t.co/lBWZsaFQxn
— TexAgs (@TexAgs) June 24, 2015
What's it take to be a CEO? @maysbusiness prof Markus Fitza answers that in an article from @Forbes: https://t.co/xycyWiaxTc #tamu #business
— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) November 4, 2015
Wow, talk about a CEO factory! It’s like A&M’s just a conveyor belt churning out CEOs!
But as any CEO worth his or her salt knows, you’d better not be afraid to read the fine print. How significant is Texas A&M’s CEO output, really?
At this May's #TAMUGrad ceremonies, Texas A&M will award its 500,000th degree and surpass 500,000 former students! Whoop! https://t.co/Y0en28LDeq #tamu pic.twitter.com/M3Vk4C0hDS
— Texas A&M University (@TAMU) April 29, 2019
Whoa! That’s a lot of Aggies! A half-million former students is quite impressive. But...uh oh. That means that six Fortune 500 CEOs is just an astronomically small fraction of all Aggies. 0.0012% to be exact, although that’s sort of #OnBrand, give or take a few decimal places.
By comparison, The University of Wisconsin has 427,000 alumni, and 14 Fortune 500 CEOs. That’s 0.0033%, or nearly TRIPLE the ratio that A&M boasts. WE’RE GETTING DRAGGED BY A B1G SCHOOL.
So how do we fix this?
By doing what any self-respecting CEO does when confronted with not being perceived as the top dog: throw money at it until your image is fixed, paying little attention to the fact that it has virtually no impact on any other member of your organization. I have complete faith in the University’s public relations department and administration to handle this small bump on the road to CEO superiority.
Look for more CEO bragging in the years to come, folks. This race ain’t over yet.