Even during the crippling global pandemic, while facing unprecedented turmoil and massive uncertainty, many companies have made major changes in their senior leadership ranks. Among the marquee brands that have named new CEOs in the past year are Amazon, Disney, Ford, Harley Davidson, HKEX, Honda, IBM, Intel, LinkedIn, Mastercard, Merck, MGM, Patagonia, UnitedHealth Group, Volkswagen, and Walgreens. The Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable organizations in the world, welcomed a new leader as well.
Although 2020 saw less turnover at the top than 2019 overall, according to CEO tracking specialists, hundreds of exits and onboardings occurred at prominent global companies. As always, the organizations involved were under tremendous pressure—from shareholders, employees, customers, and others—to make the right choices.
Unfortunately, many choose poorly. Botched CEO appointments, Thomas Keil and Marianna Zangrillo observe in the Winter 2020 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review, cost companies tens of billions of dollars annually in market value. Short tenures are common, even among “seasoned executives with previously unblemished track records,” they note, observing that research they’ve been conducting indicates that “more than 15% of all CEOs depart within two years.”
“The best-laid plans—especially succession plans—often fall apart when they encounter reality. What is surprising,” they add, “is how shocked and appalled boards are when their CEO choices fail—sometimes repeatedly.” What accounts for the failures in these CEO choices? READ MORE
By Allison Bailey and Grant Freeland
Source: bcg.com
Knowledge workers, employees with technical expertise and high-level executives alike can benefit from training to grasp the nascent tech. Across industries, businesses are laying out plans to train employees to use generative AI and AI tools effectively.
There also needs to be an understanding of the toll that caring takes on the mental, and sometimes physical, health of the individual. The constant mental burden of ensuring that both children and the elderly are cared for needs to be recognised by managers, followed by an honest discussion with employees about how best to manage and support it.
Next year will see some kind of embarrassing calamity related to artificial intelligence and hiring. That’s according to Forrester’s predictions for 2024, which prophesied that the heavy use of AI by both candidates and recruiters will lead to at least one well-known company to hire a nonexistent candidate, and at least one business to hire a real candidate for a nonexistent job.
