Latest news with #CEOsuccession
Fast Company
11-08-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Corporate boards are dropping the ball on their No. 1 job
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. 'CEO succession is the board's No. 1 job,' says leadership expert and Harvard Business School executive education fellow Bill George. 'In my experience, across hundreds of companies, businesses rise or fall with decisions on CEO succession.' Yet according to a new report by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, only 26% of directors and CEOs say that chief executive transition is among their top priorities. Another 40% don't consider it a priority at all. Tom Monahan, CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, says succession can get 'crowded out' if boards get pulled into crises or are distracted by other issues. 'As a leader, you have days where you say, 'the most important thing today is do this,' and you look up and [realize] 'I spent two hours on [my] coffee selection,'' he says. 'It turns out boards seem to have some of that as well.' And when they do turn to succession, too often directors are trying to figure out who could step into the role immediately in the event of an emergency, such as the unexpected death of a CEO. Instead, Monahan says boards should remember that CEO succession is a strategy exercise. 'We do see more boards and leadership teams treating succession as a process, not a project,' he says. 'If you look at companies where it's a project—CEO says I'm retiring, board says it's time to move, we kick into place a project—that compresses a lot of important strategic activity into probably too narrow a timetable.' The Berkshire Hathaway model Heidrick & Struggles's 'Route to the Top' report praises the CEO succession process at Berkshire Hathaway. CEO Warren Buffett earlier this year announced his plans to retire at the end of 2025. But Buffett, 94, had been talking about his replacement for more than a decade, and in 2021, the company anointed Greg Abel, who currently serves as chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice chairman of the conglomerate's non-insurance businesses. 'In a time when CEO transitions often spark volatility or uncertainty, Berkshire's process delivered confidence, continuity, and clarity to the market,' the report concludes. CEO succession has become something of a parlor game in investor and media circles, especially at high-profile companies such as Apple and Disney. (Please check out my colleague David Lidsky's surprising take on who should succeed Bob Iger at Disney.) The founder-CEO challenge Replacing founder-CEOs can be especially challenging because the entrepreneur is so personally tied to the company and can have a hard time letting go. A founder is also one of a company's largest shareholders and may feel compelled to step in when the company struggles. Michael Dell, for example, returned to the top job at his eponymous tech company in 2007 after the computer maker started to lose market share, among other issues. 'If you have a founder who has been able to conceptualize an idea and scale a company, that's a rare set of talents, and you're not going to be able to replicate that,' Monahan says. Monahan encourages boards to make clear which committee will be responsible for succession planning and then to make sure the topic is on the agenda. He says boards should have a process for meeting with executives in the C-suite, as those leaders are candidates to take over for the sitting CEO. And directors need to constantly assess the link between leadership and strategy to make sure they're looking at candidates who can support the business in the future. And what is the role of the sitting CEO? CEOs should play an active role in training their successors, but 'don't groom people in your own image,' cautions George, who has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Target, Novartis, Mayo Clinic, and Medtronic, where he was CEO for 10 years. 'Figure out what [the company] is going to need for the next 10 years, and find people with the mental agility and courage to look at it differently than you looked at it.'
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple's Tim Cook is under pressure—but there are a few key reasons leadership experts think he's still the guy for the job
Is it time for Apple CEO Tim Cook to clean out his office? You might think so after the past few weeks. But top experts on CEO successions counsel settling down and looking at the big picture. It shows why Cook might remain CEO for years and why that might even be the best course for Apple. The recent depressing news included a top Apple AI executive's defection to Meta just weeks after another high-level AI researcher had left—especially painful because Apple is widely seen as a laggard in the world's hottest technology, AI. Last month Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference, often a scene of breathtaking new products or services, was 'a snoozer,' said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. While stocks of Microsoft and Alphabet are hitting new highs, Apple is down 16% this year. Little wonder that a Wall Street research firm, Lightshed, concluded Cook is no longer the right boss for Apple. The company 'now needs a product-focused CEO, not one centered on logistics,' the firm wrote. 'AI is not something that Apple can merely 'pull the string' on. Missing on AI could fundamentally alter the company's long-term trajectory and ability to grow at all.' By earlier standards, Cook would have been on his way out in any case. In August he will have been CEO for 14 years, and in November he turns 65. But 65 is nothing special anymore, and no board of directors will hurry to dispatch a CEO who created far more shareholder value than his legendary predecessor, Steve Jobs, ever did. At least in theory, the options for Cook and the board are wide open. So what should Cook and the board do? To get an authoritative answer, Fortune recruited three eminent executive search experts, each of whom has counseled scores of major boards on managing successions. We agreed to withhold their names so that they could speak completely candidly. Here are their combined thoughts—as well as the final word from preeminent business historian Richard Tedlow, who gives a compelling comeback to anyone who thinks Cook's time is up. Apple's competitive environment now. 'Two things are happening in parallel. One is AI, which is a much bigger deal than the internet was. The second thing is the evolution of the hardware. There's a 'good enough' problem. For most users, the phones are good enough. I'm a power phone user, and I use a several-year-old iPhone because there's no compelling reason to upgrade. Those two things in combination make for a more challenging environment for Apple.' At the same time, the consultants see a temporary upside for Apple. 'They don't have the existential threat that Google has from AI. Apple still has the platform—I'm still using my Apple phone to reference ChatGPT. They're not losing revenue in that exchange. So if you look at where they make money, they actually don't need a quick entry [into AI].' 'Remember, Apple has never been first to market with anything. They're considered to be the most innovative company in the world, but they have largely taken a concept that's been proven and made it applicable for use in ways that are highly innovative and esthetically appealing.' Still, the clock has been ticking for a while. 'I would be shocked if within the next 12 months they do not release a truly functioning baseline agent to replace Siri.' When might Cook be thinking of stepping down? 'That's really the foundational question. If it's two years, are there any outsiders who could plausibly come in? Are there any boomerang people who could come back from outside of Apple?' 'Apple is less likely to go outside because of the cultural history of outsiders at Apple. It's almost revered, the story of how outsiders almost killed Apple [before Steve Jobs returned in 1997]. We hear pretty consistently that Cook is thinking of an age 68 to 70 timeline [which would be three to five years from now.] He feels that, with AI, there's some unfinished business.' 'I don't think Tim will be CEO until he's 70. I think he's tired, honestly. It's been an exhausting journey, and he's amazing, but I do sense a different energy.' What kind of executive will Cook's successor be? 'The common wisdom is that they really need a product visionary, as opposed to the operational genius that he was. I would argue that until the tariff and supply chain issues get resolved, they probably do need him at the helm because that is a non-trivial issue for them.' Who are the leading candidates to succeed Cook? 'The most obvious are John [Ternus] and Craig [Federighi].' Ternus is senior vice president hardware engineering. Federighi is senior vice president software engineering. 'But given the timeline, [the company] could still make quite a few changes, and it could be somebody quite different.' 'There are a few companies where being a CEO is really like being the president of a country, and Apple is one of those. There are maybe a dozen. It sounds kind of heretical to say, but to some degree, the smaller part of the job is effectively operating the company.' Bottom line, what is the big-picture assessment of Tim Cook? For this we turn to a business historian, Richard Tedlow, an emeritus professor at the Harvard Business School. Like any good professor, he asks questions. He starts by asking five crucial questions about Apple: Does it satisfy customers? Does it come from behind? Does it have a powerful corporate culture? Is it willing to admit mistakes? Does it have 'an imagination of disaster,' a realization that things could go badly wrong? Approvingly, he answers Yes to all. Told that a Wall Street research firm has said Cook should resign, Tedlow notes that Warren Buffett invited Cook to Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting in May and said, 'I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more money than I've ever made [for] Berkshire Hathaway.' Tedlow asks, 'If that Wall Street firm called Buffett and said, 'Warren, do you think it's time to get rid of Tim Cook,' what do you think Warren would say?' Tedlow's ultimate query: 'If you could choose anybody to be the CEO of Apple right now—anybody in the whole history of business, from John Jacob Astor to John D. Rockefeller to Tom Watson Sr. to Andy Grove to Tim Cook—whom would you choose? This is actually not a difficult question.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple Inc. (AAPL): I Don't Want To See Anymore People Leaving, Says Jim Cramer
We recently published . Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is nearly a regular feature of Cramer's morning show. In this appearance, he discussed the firm in detail and wondered whether CEO Tim Cook's successor could benefit from having a hardware-focused approach. The discussion kicked off on the news that long-time Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief operating officer Jeff Williams would retire. Williams was long thought to be Cook's successor. Here's what Cramer said: 'Well I'll tell you this. I got to meet him in a very candid moment, spent some time, you know delightful guy, big think guy and uh, I think that their, the bench of big think is remarkable there but and I won't say that he would be missed because he's still there for now but he had the supply chain, but he really had the light touch. And I enjoyed him as I think many people at Apple do. There are a lot of people at Apple, people don't understand, have that kind of, they're convivial, they're uh, they're really in touch with what you might want. And look I think the guy's terrific, what am I gonna say, I don't wanna see anybody terrific leave, or retire. Would he have been a successor? I don't know, because they've got so many people to succeed, Luca Maestri, the incredible CFO. But I don't wanna see any more turnover. A wide view of an Apple store, showing the range of products the company offers. 'Look, I'd like them to do Taiwan Semi, I mean Taiwan Semi and NVIDIA, they're like the shovel ready and they go there, they pick, they watch tomorrow to see what state is the best and then they like go buy some shovels from Caterpillar and get to work. Yes! Yes! I mean I know it's not optics if it's Apple, but yes, they need to. And I don't care which part. But they need to. And I think that maybe they want to do what they think is great for shareholders, and this is a waste of money for shareholders but we have an aggressive administration. And Taiwan Semi went and put real money and I think that Apple is putting real money and somehow it's not visible. While we acknowledge the potential of AAPL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
What Does The Change In COO Mean For CEO Succession At Apple?
Apple's COO transition announced yesterday, with Jeff Williams stepping down in advance of retirement later this year and Sabih Khan assuming the role, offers a window into the company's internal calculus around CEO succession. For years, Williams was seen as the logical heir to Tim Cook. His departure removes the most plausible internal candidate for CEO—and with it, the long-standing assumption that Apple's next leader would, like Cook, rise through operations. Steve Jobs was deliberate in his use of the COO role to prepare Tim Cook, to great effect. The decision confirms that Apple is no longer grooming its future CEO from the operations function because Khan is not being positioned as a general manager. His portfolio is to be sharply focused on global manufacturing, logistics, and sustainability. Design, which Williams oversaw in addition to operations, will now report directly to Cook. That structural change eliminates the hybrid nature of the role that had made Williams uniquely qualified to step into the top job. What was once a single, broad mandate has now been split—and as a result, the pathway to the CEO suite has become obscured. This is not simply a matter of COO personality or style. Williams embodied a model of leadership that united product vision, operational precision, and organizational continuity. Under his leadership, Apple launched the Watch, expanded into the health sector, and maintained extraordinary logistical consistency despite global disruptions. Khan, by contrast, is being tasked with a narrower but highly strategic mission: fortifying Apple's supply chain, localizing production, and driving environmental accountability. His work is essential—but it's not designed to cultivate public visibility, cross-functional leadership, or executive breadth. These are all potential elements of a COO role that Cook absolutely executed under Steve Jobs. Apple knows all this. They aren't miscasting Khan. They're restructuring the COO's responsibilities to match a different strategy. That strategy is striking in what it omits: identifying a likely successor to Tim Cook. For years, analysts assumed Williams would take the helm when Cook stepped down. The two had closely aligned roles with similar leadership philosophies, and their public personas were comfortably low-key. Now, that continuity is gone. No one on the current executive team combines Williams's depth of experience with the cross-functional influence needed to command across the enterprise. Services, Apple's fastest-growing division, has no visible successor candidate. Neither does marketing, finance, or product design. The bench is deep—but specialized. And that specialization, while operationally sound, leaves the succession question wide open. Apple isn't buying time. It's signaling a shift. The company is no longer interested in creating another Tim Cook. It doesn't need to. Under Cook, Apple became the most operationally sophisticated technology company in history. But the next phase will be different. Apple is transitioning from being a company that invents new categories to one that defends its ecosystem, expands its services, and builds geopolitical resilience into its infrastructure. That phase requires a different kind of leadership—possibly one shaped by policy, regulation, global affairs, or platform strategy rather than supply chain mastery or industrial design. By separating operations from design, Apple is closing the chapter that began when Cook succeeded Jobs. And with Williams's departure, the bridge between product innovation and executive leadership has been intentionally dismantled. Apple's next CEO will not come from the operations side. That era is over. The future leadership of Apple will emerge from a new corner of the organization—or from outside it entirely. This COO transition isn't about who runs Apple next. It's about what kind of company Apple intends to be.
Harvard Business Review
02-07-2025
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
The Right Way to Step Down as CEO
Details Transcript When news breaks of a CEO succession, much of the attention is given to the new leader and how they will change the company. But new research shows that the leave-taking process of the outgoing chief executive is often mishandled, with negative impacts on succession and the organization. Rebecca Slan Jerusalim, an executive director at Russell Reynolds Associates, and Navio Kwok, a leadership advisor at RRA, say that boards are often surprised when a CEO gives notice, and they often make that person feel excluded during the handoff process. The researchers share stories from the front lines about CEO psychology, best practices for outgoing leaders and their boards, and broader lessons for effective transitions. Jerusalim and Kwok wrote the HBR article ' The Vital Role of the Outgoing CEO.' Key episode topics include: leadership transitions, succession planning, leadership, managing uncertainty, corporate communications, boards
