The Wall Street Journal – George L. Davis – Retaining Ex-CEOs Is “Usually a Recipe for Friction”

The Wall Street Journal – George L. Davis – Retaining Ex-CEOs Is “Usually a Recipe for Friction”

It is unusual for large US companies to hang onto former CEOs and it can create potential pitfalls, write Joann S. Lublin and Julie Jargon in The Wall Street Journal. A successful exiting CEO tends to remain board chairman for a transition period of no longer than a year, they add. Lengthier transitions may prove successful if the current and former CEOs have distinct areas of expertise. But such an arrangement won’t work if the company is “trying to appease” its former chief, warns George L. Davis Jr., Leader of Egon Zehnder’s Global CEO Practice. On the contrary, in such cases, “it usually is a recipe for friction,’’ he notes.

Full story: Joann S. Lublin and Julie Jargon: “At Starbucks, CEO Transition Plan Includes Vow Not to Hover” in The Wall Street Journal (7 December 2016).