Intel, Boeing, Nike, CVS, Peloton and WeightWatchers: These are among the companies that replaced their CEOs this year—in most cases, unexpectedly.
The rate of departures has hit unprecedented levels. According to the September CEO Turnover Report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 1,652 CEOs announced departures so far this year, the highest number since the company started tracking CEO changes in 2002.
Not only has the number of exits increased, but so has the speed of departure. Nearly one-third of CEOs exit by their third year, according to a 2023 Korn Ferry analysis of over 87,000 CEO profiles, and about 11% leave within the first.
It would be easy to blame the outgoing CEO for failing, and perhaps that’s what happened in some cases. Yet, given the rate and number of failures, I think it's important to examine other underlying issues to avoid repeating the same mistake.
The rest of the article can be found at Forbes, where it was originally published on Jan 9th, 2025.
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