Is HR developing future CHROs effectively?

How do I become a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)?” is a question that I often hear during HR conferences or executive development sessions with HR practitioners. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is often unclear for people in the human resource profession. While some organizations have put in place deliberate plans for grooming future HR leaders, too often, HR professionals are busy focusing on the talent in the organization with no time to take care of their own! The growing common response to a path to CHRO amongst HR managers is “You can’t get there from here.” 
Globally, the evidence supports this notion. More than 60 percent of the CHROs in the S&P 500 group of companies were hired directly from external sources. This is not a one-time phenomenon as this trend is growing (up from 50 percent external hires in 2011). Only 30 percent of CHRO’s are promoted from within the HR function. If we contrast this to the path to the CFO, more than 50 percent are p