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Your first job often depends on what is available. Your next career move deserves more thought: what do you want to become?
I landed in Dubai in July 1997. I still remember the hot air as I stepped out of the airport and the feeling of beginning again in a new country. I knew I had an opportunity. I could not have drawn a precise map of where it would take me. Today, when I think about career growth, I think about the distance between where we begin and what we eventually discover we are capable of doing.
That is why I have often said, “Anyone can become a CEO.”
It is a statement of belief in people’s potential. It is also a statement that needs explaining.
Can anyone become a CEO?
Becoming a CEO requires much more than ambition. It takes competence, judgment, experience, the trust of others and the opportunity to lead. People also face different circumstances and barriers. No course or certificate can promise the top job.
But I believe we too often decide who has leadership potential before people have had a fair chance to develop it.
We look at their current designation, their first employer or how confidently they speak. We see the person standing in front of us and assume we know how far that person can go. A job title tells us someone’s present responsibility. It cannot tell us everything they might become.
What Ratatouille reminds us about potential
This conviction found an echo in Ratatouille. In the film, Chef Auguste Gusteau’s motto, “Anyone can cook,” inspires Remy, a rat with an extraordinary ambition to become a chef. It is an unlikely beginning for someone who wants a place in a great kitchen.
My reading of that story is simple: ability can emerge where people least expect it. Discovering that ability requires room to learn, practise and be taken seriously. The workplace has its own assumptions about who belongs where. How often do we give people the opportunity to grow beyond the role in which we first encountered them?
Career growth does not have to mean becoming a CEO
For some people, success means leading an organisation. For others, it means becoming an excellent specialist, managing a team, starting a business or returning to work with confidence. A university student may simply want that first opportunity to prove themselves. Each of these ambitions deserves a serious development plan.
The useful question is: “What work do I want to be capable of doing, and what must I learn to do it well?” That question gives career development a direction. It also makes progress more personal and more practical.
How to build a career development plan
Before choosing a training programme, take these five steps.
1. Choose a direction
Identify a role, responsibility or area of expertise you want to grow towards. You do not need to plan your entire working life. You do need enough clarity to choose a useful next step.
2. Understand what the work requires
Look beyond the designation. What decisions does the person make? What problems must they solve? What technical knowledge, communication skills and business understanding do they need? A manager’s title may be attractive. Understanding the manager’s responsibilities is more useful.
3. Identify your skill gaps
Compare those requirements with what you can already demonstrate. Be honest about where you need development. Ask for feedback from someone who understands the work. A skill gap is something you can work on once you can name it.
4. Learn, then apply
Choose relevant learning and look for opportunities to use it. Take responsibility for a small project. Improve a process. Present a recommendation. Practise the difficult conversation you have been avoiding. Application turns learning into evidence of capability.
5. Review your progress
Keep a record of what you have improved, delivered or learned to handle. Revisit your plan as your interests and responsibilities change. Your career pathway should have direction and room to evolve.
Where professional certifications fit
A relevant professional certification can provide structure to learning and, where assessment is rigorous, help demonstrate knowledge. Its value grows when you can explain how you have used that knowledge. If you study procurement, can you make a better sourcing recommendation? If you study supply chain management, can you understand how an inventory decision affects cost and service? If you study leadership, can you help a team work through a difficult situation?
Those are the connections learners and employers need to see.
Why we are building personalised career learning pathways
This thinking is central to what we are building at Blue Ocean through Mastering Business Excellence (MBE). We have developed more than 200 programmes across multiple disciplines, including over 40 supply chain programmes. The purpose is to help people connect learning with a meaningful next step.
For individuals, that means career growth. For employers, it means developing capabilities relevant to job roles and organisational needs. For university students, it means a clearer pathway towards entering the job market.
Our approach draws on analysis of more than 8,000 job roles, with an AI-powered engine designed to help identify relevant learning pathways based on current or aspirational roles. Technology can help organise the options. The learner still has to make the commitment, practise and put the learning to work.
Your next step matters more than a distant title
Looking back at my arrival in Dubai, I could not have predicted every turn my career would take.
Many people reading this will feel the same uncertainty about their own future. You do not have to know your final designation today. Start by identifying one capability that would help you take on something you cannot yet do confidently.
Build it. Use it. Then decide what comes next.
You may want to become a CEO. You may discover a different ambition that matters more to you. Either way, give yourself the chance to grow beyond the limits of your current role.
Crafting Capabilities. Curating Careers.
