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In case you hadn’t noticed, for CEOs, AKA, leaders, times ain’t what they used to be.

Not long ago, CEOs were powerful autocrats running top-down organizations under the auspices of Boards comprised friends and colleagues—but not any more.

Life as a CEO has changed drastically as reported in a fascinating book by Alan Murray, the Wall Street Journal’s executive editor for online, Revolt in theBoardroom: The New Rules of Power in Corporate America. (Excerpt)

Is the turnover tally really that large; that different from what it used to be?

I’m sure there must have been an exception here and there, but prior to the 1990s CEOs weren’t fired. During the Nineties Boards ousted a few high profile cases, such as GM, IBM, American Express, but by mid-2000 things really started changing and have continued apace—663 in 2004, 1322 in 2005, 1478 in 2006, but ‘only’ 1,356 2007.

Of course, not all were fired, some retired, some took outside offers, but a great number left by, or just before, Board request and some left in a very public perp walk.

Read the book, it’s educational, entertaining and will change your view of the corner office.

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 4:30 am and is filed under Book review, Business info, Culture, Leadership, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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