Ace the game

A few key steps—managing the transition, building a personal platform, and driving results—is all it takes to succeed as a new CEO.

- THOMAS KEIL AND MARIANNA ZANGRILLO

Becoming CEO is a dream for most ambitious executives. But, all too often, this dream turns into a nightmare because new CEOs regularly fail, with their tenure often lasting less than two years, sometimes just months. Take, for instance, Leo Aoptheker at US electronics giant Hewlett Packard, John Flannery at GE, or Jennifer Morgan at German software powerhouse SAP, all of which remained in the CEO role for less than 18 months. While some manage to get on even better than before, more often the results are disastrous for both the company and the career of the CEO. So, is there something new CEOs can do to improve the odds of success? This short article will highlight the main steps that many successful CEOs have followed and that, to one degree or another, can be replicated in most organisations.

Managing the transition

While it takes years for a CEO to properly come onboard, and also takes years to determine whether a CEO tenure has been successful, the initial months if not days can set a new CEO’s tenure onto a path of success or failure. In fact, often senior leaders around the CEO, as well as the public are even capable to anticipate the outcome based on the CEO’s early behaviours. Successful CEOs, we have observed, often tread carefully in their initial tenure rather than trying to impress by bold action that turns out later to be misguided because the CEO did not understand the task ahead or the company itself yet.