The standard CEO spends their time attending conferences, strategizing with their board, and, within the case of the boss of semiconductor large ASML, batting off questions on methods to get to the place he’s.
It’s an comprehensible question. As CEO of the Fortune 500 Europe lithography group, Christophe Fouquet is answerable for probably the most strategically necessary firms on this planet. His €3.5 million ($3.6 million) pay packet final yr, and extra in accrued inventory choices, doesn’t mood the envy both.
However chatting with Norges Financial institution Funding Administration CEO Nicolai Tangen on his In Good Firm podcast, Fouquet indicated the query stands out as a constant shortcoming amongst bold kids.
“I see too many younger individuals who come to see me, they usually wish to be CEO, they usually ask me ‘how can we change into CEO?’ And I attempt to clarify to them within the nicest potential means that that is nearly an absurd query,” stated Fouquet.
“This isn’t the precise query. The correct query is what am I going to do tomorrow that basically will get me excited, that basically brings the perfect out of me?
“As a result of for those who go and do this day-after-day, there could also be an opportunity you change into CEO—most likely a much bigger likelihood that you do not—however you’ll equally find yourself doing one thing that brings you pleasure, vitality, and most significantly brings that to the individuals round you.”
Fouquet, who says he by no means harbored ambitions for the C-Suite in his early years, says this could lengthen to the themes younger individuals select to check at college, arguing it’s extra necessary to do one thing you take pleasure in than taking a career-focused strategy.
The ASML CEO says this strategy to profession improvement may also help phase development into two elements, targeted on gaining affect earlier than studying methods to use it.
“I feel the primary a part of your profession is about proving your self, I actually consider that,” stated Fouquet, including he realized this a part of his life had concluded when he took cost of a product unit at ASML greater than a decade in the past.
“And then you definitely look ahead, you say, okay, what’s subsequent… what can I do to assist and the place is the place the place I can do one thing that issues?”
Fouquet’s position has remodeled throughout his time at ASML. At $230 billion, the group is value orders of magnitude greater than when he joined the corporate in 2008.
Shares within the group ballooned following the COVID-19 pandemic, first throughout a broad enhance in demand for tech shares and once more throughout the AI increase.
The corporate provides its lithography machines to the world’s largest firms, together with Nvidia, which permits the manufacturing of superior semiconductors utilized in AI purposes.
As a key a part of the worldwide provide chain, Foquest’s position is simply more likely to develop in significance.
Editor’s be aware: A model of this text first appeared on Fortune.com on February 12, 2025.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
