CLINGING ONTO POWER, FAILING TO GROOM A SUCCESSOR
But some of the most troublesome are the result of the opposite problem: Relatively successful CEOs who cling onto power and fail to groom a suitable successor. The longer CEOs stay in place, the more fully they inhabit their jobs.
It’s not just that they relish all the attention (and money). It’s that they can’t think of themselves as being anything other than the CEO, their every minute scheduled, their every move monitored.
Even responsible CEOs can put off thinking about retirement – there is just one more project to finish, one more transformation to oversee, one more cover story to pose for. The less responsible ones subvert the succession process, either consciously or unconsciously, by blocking the search for a successor or undermining possible replacements.
The story of Disney’s struggle to find a successor to Bob Iger as CEO is particularly tortured. The company groomed Thomas Staggs for the job, making him COO, only to change its mind, partly at Iger’s urging.
Then Iger, who had repeatedly delayed his announced date for retirement, impetuously announced that he was stepping down immediately in February 2020 and persuaded the board to appoint Chapek as his successor despite Chapek’s lack of experience in the company’s core business of developing creative content. Chapek’s condition of employment suggested a problem – he would serve as both CEO and CEO-in-training and, along with his office, Iger would retain creative control as executive chair of the board.
Sure enough, Chapek was out within three years and Iger is still running the company – yet another “boomerang CEO” theoretically saving the day after their hand-picked successor ran things off the rails. (Disney says it will name Iger’s successor in early 2026, before his contract runs out at the end of the year.)
