What Does a Business Leader Do?

We looked at the average business leader annual salary and compared it with the average of an executive consultant. Generally speaking, executive consultants receive $40,901 higher pay than business leaders per year.

While their salaries may differ, one common ground between business leaders and executive consultants are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like project management, business development, and business process.

There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, a business leader responsibilities require skills like "digital transformation," "analytics," "customer service," and "lean six sigma." Meanwhile a typical executive consultant has skills in areas such as "healthcare," "financial services," "c-suite," and "client relationships." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

Executive consultants tend to make the most money in the technology industry by averaging a salary of $139,883. In contrast, business leaders make the biggest average salary of $128,816 in the pharmaceutical industry.

On average, executive consultants reach similar levels of education than business leaders. Executive consultants are 0.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

The next role we're going to look at is the senior manager profession. Typically, this position earns a higher pay. In fact, they earn a $28,476 higher salary than business leaders per year.

A similarity between the two careers of business leaders and senior managers are a few of the skills associated with both roles. We used resumes from both professions to find that both use skills like "digital transformation," "analytics," and "project management. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that business leader responsibilities requires skills like "business plan," "business operations," "data analysis," and "dashboards." But a senior manager might use skills, such as, "portfolio," "professional development," "healthcare," and "oversight."

Senior managers may earn a higher salary than business leaders, but senior managers earn the most pay in the professional industry with an average salary of $136,663. On the other side of things, business leaders receive higher paychecks in the pharmaceutical industry where they earn an average of $128,816.

In general, senior managers study at similar levels of education than business leaders. They're 0.9% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 1.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The third profession we take a look at is process improvement manager. On an average scale, these workers bring in higher salaries than business leaders. In fact, they make a $15,024 higher salary per year.

While looking through the resumes of several business leaders and process improvement managers we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "project management," "business development," and "lean six sigma," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, a business leader is likely to be skilled in "digital transformation," "analytics," "customer service," and "business process," while a typical process improvement manager is skilled in "value stream," "dmaic," "management process," and "kpis."

Interestingly enough, process improvement managers earn the most pay in the technology industry, where they command an average salary of $99,802. As mentioned previously, business leaders highest annual salary comes from the pharmaceutical industry with an average salary of $128,816.

Process improvement managers typically study at similar levels compared with business leaders. For example, they're 1.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

The fourth career we look at typically earns higher pay than business leaders. On average, directors of business operations earn a difference of $21,515 higher per year.

While both business leaders and directors of business operations complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like project management, customer service, and business development, the two careers also vary in other skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a business leader might have more use for skills like "digital transformation," "analytics," "lean six sigma," and "business process." Meanwhile, some directors of business operations might include skills like "patients," "kpis," "oversight," and "financial management" on their resume.

In general, directors of business operations make a higher salary in the manufacturing industry with an average of $127,932. The highest business leader annual salary stems from the pharmaceutical industry.

Directors of business operations reach similar levels of education when compared to business leaders. The difference is that they're 0.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree more, and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.