In our role as providers of senior executive outplacement services, we have the unique perspective of talking to BOTH sides of a failed relationship. If you want us to publish your response, we will. It's rarely for lack of smarts or vision. Most unsuccessful CEOs stumble because of one simple, fatal shortcoming. It's an intriguing question and one of deep importance not just to CEOs and their boards, but also to investors, customers, suppliers, alliance partners, employees, and the many others who suffer when the top man stumbles.
Trouble is, they usually look in the wrong place.
Consider the Pfeiffer episode. The pundits opined, as they usually do in these cases, that his problem was with grand-scale vision and strategy. Not according to the man who led the coup, Compaq Chairman Benjamin Rosen. Our plans are to speed up decision-making and make the company more efficient. You'd never guess it from reading the papers or talking to your broker or studying most business books, but what's true at Compaq is true at most companies where the CEO fails.