Succession planning is difficult, especially if you’re following a great leader. The Businessweek story headlined: “Following a Legend Is Hard, Sir Alex Ferguson Edition” tells the tale of one example.
“Alex Ferguson left his job as manager of Manchester United (MANU) on top. The club had just won the English Premier League for the 13th time in his 26 years at the helm. Ferguson, considered by many to be the best ever at his job, had been knighted. On his way out, he helped choose his own successor, David Moyes, from the Everton Football Club, 35 miles west in Liverpool. But not quite a year later, on April 22, 2014, with Manchester United three weeks away from the end of a disappointing season, the club fired Moyes.”
I wonder if Mark Fields, set to follow Alan Mulally as Ford’s CEO, read that article. If he did, he might also be thinking about Bob McDonald, who followed legendary A. G. Lafely at Proctor and Gamble. He could be thinking about Tim Cook or Jeff Immelt.
Becoming a new CEO is always hard.
Becoming a CEO is one of the two toughest transitions in business. Suddenly, you’re the spot where the buck stops. Suddenly, a person far down the org chart can do something stupid that affects your future. Suddenly you have to deal with a mercurial stock market and activist investors. It’s even tougher to follow a legend.
It’s harder when the new CEO follows a legend.
When you follow a legend, expectations run high. Everyone, the people in the company, investors, the business press, and your Aunt Sally all expect a continuation of great company performance. They expect you to act and perform like the Great One who just left.
That’s tough. People are different. Circumstances change. And things are never as good as they look from the outside. It may help Mark Fields and others who succeed legends to remember one particular story of a man who followed a legend.
Sometimes it works.
The company was admired by everyone. The CEO had delivered unbroken success for years. He was an advisor to US presidents and the most admired businessman in America. The company was General Electric, the admired CEO was Reg Jones, and the man replacing the legend was Jack Welch.
