Cambridge Business Association
The Right Leader
Book

The Right Leader

Selecting Executives Who Fit

Nat Stoddard and Claire Wyckoff
Wiley, 2009
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8

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Recommendation

Forty percent of new CEOs and other senior executives in the U.S. fail to hang onto their jobs for more than 18 months. The costs of such failures are heavy, from lackluster stock prices to dwindling morale. Considering the toll, you’d think companies would follow fail-safe methods for identifying the right high-level talent. Think again. Most organizations focus on selecting new leaders with exceptional business skills, but don’t really consider whether candidates fit into their corporate cultures. Transition management expert Nat Stoddard addresses this growing problem in this book, developed with business writer Claire Wyckoff. They offer a logical, systematic – if perhaps labor- and time-intensive – approach to finding CEOs and other senior executives who will have the best chance of still being around for a second or third annual company picnic. getAbstract appreciates that this cogent, informative report on leadership selection problems comes with a thoughtful, step-by-step solution. Anyone who participates in hiring executives will benefit from this detailed guide. Candidates for senior positions also will find it eminently useful.

Summary

Cultural Fit Is Everything

In 2004, William D. Perez, former CEO at privately owned S.C. Johnson Company, became Nike’s new president and CEO. Phil Knight, Nike’s chairman and founder, was very pleased about Perez’s arrival and called him a “highly regarded and deeply talented leader.” Sadly for Nike, Knight and Perez, he never fit in; the cultural gap between S.C. Johnson and Nike was too large to bridge. When Perez resigned after a year (ultimately going on to success as Wrigley’s CEO), Knight explained that adapting to Nike’s overall personality had proven too challenging. Perez, he said, had failed “to get his arms around this place.” While the two leaders’ ideas on corporate growth were at odds, the main problem was cultural discomfort, as revealed in “lots of little incidents” that finally eroded Perez’s position at Nike.

Didn’t Nike do all it could in advance to determine whether Perez’s persona would fit its culture? Alas, apparently not, but such a “debacle” is not uncommon. Many firms do little ahead of time to ensure that a new leader’s “abilities, personality, energy and character” match their corporate cultures. Indeed, corporations seldom analyze how...

About the Authors

Nat Stoddard chairs a career- and transition-management consulting firm, which is headquartered in New York. Claire Wyckoff is a faculty member at New York University’s Center for Publishing.

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