New leadership style

"As Asia becomes a more formidable player in the global arena, the time is now for a new style of leadership that will truly make the region the heart of international commerce."

Respondents also listed 'strong people development skills' as the key competency that would become more important for the Asia CEO in the next three years. Strong people development skills were seen as being as important as 'strong strategic thinking,' and more important than 'being able to work across cultures' or 'drive change.'

Managing a P&L was seen as the most important experience essential to prepare an Asian CEO for the role followed by creating human capital strategies, running a country operation, managing a crisis project, managing a global team and turning around a struggling part of the business.

Signaling Asia's significance, respondents' companies were equally headquartered globally in Asia as they were in North America (36 per cent respectively), with 26 per cent headquartered in Europe and two per cent in the Middle East and Africa.