Daily Kos

View Story | 48 comments

  •  the inefficent CEO market (none / 0)

    If you want to understand the source of this problem, read Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest Charismatic CEOs by Rakesh Khurana. It is the most reality-based business book I've ever read (originally a PhD dissertation).

    . . . solutions emerge from [our] judicious study of discernible reality.

    by realitybased on Wed Dec 29, 2004 at 09:11:08 PM PDT

    •  to elaborate. . . (none / 1)

      The market for CEOs is inefficient because the pool of potential applicants is artificially constrained by the preconceptions of corporate boards. There are many contributing factors, but these are principle:

      1. Belief that to be a CEO one must have previously held a comparable position at a major competitor in the same field.
      2. Belief in the charismatic model of leadership.
      3. Belief that it is better to hire a CEO from outside a corporation than from within.
      4. Tendency for corporate boards to assume that they would know any qualified candidate, and to limit the field to cronies form the start.
      5. At the CEO level, corporate recruiting firms are not actually search firms. Their role is purely to intermediate in the courtship process.
      6. Board obsession with how the business media will react to the appointment, and investor responsiveness to the media framing.

      . . . solutions emerge from [our] judicious study of discernible reality.

      by realitybased on Wed Dec 29, 2004 at 09:33:43 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

View Story | 48 comments