2024 Has Been a Record Year for CEO Changes
Main points
- Intel, Starbucks and Nike are just some of the companies changing leadership positions this year.
- New research shows that more than 40% of people have made changes because they failed to turn around a struggling company.
- Reasons for CEO departures this year include poor performance and a desire to turn their careers toward misconduct.
Doesn’t it feel like a legendary company? CEO Leave work every day? You are not far away from us.
Intel(international trade center), Nike (of) and Starbucks (gender) are just some of the companies where leaders have resigned this year due to poor performance and other reasons. misconduct As does the CEO of soup and snack giant Campbell Soup (extracorporeal circulation)-one Profession pivot. (In his case, it was the National Football League.)
Number one exits have hit a new high. The outplacement firm said last month that more than 1,800 chief executives have announced their departures by 2024, the highest number on record since Challenger, Grey & Christmas began tracking such changes in 2002.
This is a 19% increase from the more than 1,500 exits recorded during the same period last year, itself a record for the year to date.
Boards lose patience with poor performance
The Conference Board said chief executive departures are rising as boards grow increasingly impatient with bosses who have failed to turn around struggling companies.
In a report released in early November with recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles, ESG data analytics firm ESGAUGE and compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy, the Conference Board found that more than 40 of the S&P 500 companies have replaced CEOs this year. % performed poorly.
Specifically, 42% of these companies had a total shareholder return below 25%, compared with 30% in 2017. The S&P 500 has also had a strong year, potentially making the underperformance of laggards more pronounced.
“This sends a clear signal to CEOs: Either create value or face greater scrutiny,” Heidrick & Struggles partner Lyndon Taylor said in a statement.
From Intel’s Kissinger to Cole Kingsbury, a long list of fired CEOs
The list of CEOs who have been ousted for failing to restore their companies to their former glory is long.
These include Intel’s Pat Kissingeras chipmakers fail to catch up Artificial Intelligence (AI) Wave, and Boeing’s (Bachelor) Dave Calhounwho left the troubled plane maker combustion By cash.
Leaders at retailers have also been replaced, including Kohl’s (korea association of science and technology) tom kingsburythe following five (five) Joel Anderson and Dollar Tree’s (DLTR) Rick Dreiling, who said he resigned because health problems.
Sometimes a company’s sales drop because it’s lost its cool: Starbucks’ (gender) Laxman Narasimhan expelled just after more than a year At the helm of coffee giant and one-time sneaker king Nike John Donahoe Maybe that can be proven. His successor, Brian Niccol, comes from Chipotle (CMG), whose successor will come from within the company.
As Gelsinger noted, it can be a “bittersweet” experience, especially for someone like the former Intel CEO, who spent much of his working life at the chipmaking company Business spent.
Behavioral issues affect some CEOs
Several CEOs have lost their jobs this year because of personal relationships or other issues that violated company policy.
Alan Shaw, CEO, Norfolk Southern Airlines (National Security Council), was fired in September after the freight railroad said an investigation found the executive “violated company policy by entering into a consensual relationship with the company’s legal director.”
LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (LPLA) Arnold is fired The unspecified comments to the employee violated the broker’s “commitment to a respectful workplace.”
From 2024 through October, seven chief executives tracked by Challenger left the company amid allegations of professional and sexual misconduct, which Challenger, Gray & Christmas said could include mismanagement of money or personal conduct.