Matching a CEO Choice to the Environment

We often hear about matching a new CEO or new CEO candidate’s functional background — for example moving from CFO to CEO — to the job. That’s an interesting question, and a more interesting question is how to match a CEO’s full set of experiences and personality to the needs of the organization.

I wrote a case study for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) with a scenario of CEO succession for baseball teams. It was the first case study I wrote with SHRM, and as I think back, what I remember most is how great a team I had working with me and how much fun it was to create the scenario portion of the case study. I love writing these scenarios, and to do it with great collaborators is inspiring.

It’s also reassuring to see that many of the key points in the case study remain key points.

Considering the internal and external environment, and other strategic aspects are essential to making a choice about the next CEO and helping that new CEO achieve a great start, as well as long-term success.

Understanding the CEO role as much as possible, while simultaneously envisioning changes to the role remains a hallmark of great succession practice.

Realizing that CEO succession often occurs within the context of other organizations and leaders within the industry is pivotal to determining how well and how fast your CEO succession will make notable impacts.

As a sidenote, it’s also interesting to see how some of the baseball team names I used are no longer as ridiculous as they were when I was writing the case. A missed branding opportunity? Perhaps.