In our volatile, uncertain, complex and inter-connected world, the challenges facing corporate executives are often outpacing their cognitive abilities. This is undermining the sustainability of companies across North America, Europe and Asia. The need to find the right leader to navigate their corporations through these unchartered waters, teeming with unknown dangers and new opportunities, is paramount.
Increasingly, companies are hiring internal candidates for their top executive positions. Research reveals that CEOs brought in from outside the company succeed less often than those who are promoted from within. (Joseph L. Bower, More Insiders Are Being Hired and That’s a Good Thing, HBR, March 18, 2016). Hiring external senior executives is warranted however in some cases; for example, bringing in a Chief Digital Officer to overcome organizational inertia and to lead digital transformation and innovation. The ideal CEO is one who is promoted from within, but with as wide-ranging experience as possible working in different cultures and countries, a passion for deepening his or her knowledge and a rich network of contacts to broaden perspective. The ideal CEO looks at the “world in a way that allows one to weigh on opposing and contradictory demands and manage them on an ongoing basis.” (David L. Dotlich; Peter, C. Cairo and Cade Cowan 2014, The Unfinished Leader, p. xi) Companies with a history of success and innovation over the long-term, such as Johnson and Johnson and the Royal Bank of Canada, have placed the development of their next generation leaders at the top of their agendas.