In recent years, leaders at such high-profile companies as Xerox, Procter & Gamble, Lucent, Coca-Cola and Mattel have flamed out early in their tenures. Why did such promising and previously successful individuals fail so quickly in the CEO role? And why is such failure happening today with relatively high frequency?
The individuals in charge bear some of the responsibility, of course. But the authors’ research also uncovered other major forces at play. First is the impact of the predecessor CEO’s actions on his or her successor’s performance. While outgoing CEOs do not intend to contribute to the failure of their successors, their personal needs and actions can lay the groundwork for derailment. A second force is often the succession process itself. Once again, the outgoing CEO may be responsible, having failed to prepare a successor adequately; and the board is also often guilty of lack of oversight. A third reason for failure by new CEOs is their often narrow expertise and inability to set a proper context as a leader. The authors explore these issues and then offer advice to outgoing CEOs, directors and incoming leaders that may help them avoid the troubles that some companies have faced in making a leadership transition.
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Supply chain politics has not been much of a topic in political debate, but given the recent Supreme Court ruling on corporation contributions, it moves to the head of the class in political debate over whether or not it is beneficial or adverse to democracy. Most intuitively presume the latter, but that premise is based upon the faith that democracy still exists in America. If truths be known, democracy may have faded long ago with the development of the military industrial complex however. The public may not have caught up yet with the realities that few privileged and advantaged persons want to reveal. With faith based initiatives, America may have begun the soft version of a welfare complex that together with the military, may drain any amount collected from taxes eventually. Still low on the debate scale, the forecast is reason enough to make the inquiry since like population demographics, funds do multiply, and can trample citizenship rights and privileges, perhaps even faster than population density.