America’s bosses just won’t quit. That could spell trouble
Bob Iger is not the only one hanging around for too long
Of the many worries that whirl around the minds of chief executives, few are more unsettling than the question of succession. Having toiled their way to the top of the corporate ladder, many bosses struggle to imagine relinquishing control and placing their legacy in the hands of another.
A growing number of America’s bosses have instead opted to defer the matter altogether. By the end of last year 101 S&P 500 CEOs had held the corner office for more than a decade, up from just 36 ten years earlier, according to figures from MyLogIQ, a data provider. Although some, like Warren Buffett, the longest-serving of the lot with 53 years on the clock, built the companies they run, most are hired hands. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, a bank, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, a software firm, and Chris Nassetta of Hilton, a hotel franchise, are among the many who have outlasted their predecessors. Such long-serving chief executives have pushed up the average tenure of S&P 500 top dogs from six years to seven over the past decade.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "The long goodbye"
Business September 9th 2023
- Meet Ernie, China’s answer to ChatGPT
- German builders are on the brink of collapse
- TikTok is wading into South-East Asia’s e-commerce wars
- A strike at Chevron shows a reinvigorated union movement
- Meet the world’s most enduring product
- Networking for introverts: a how-to guide
- America’s bosses just won’t quit. That could spell trouble
More from Business
Is America Inc’s war for talent over?
Competition has cooled—for now
Big tech’s great AI power grab
Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are on the hunt for new energy sources
Does Perplexity’s “answer engine” threaten Google?
Taking aim at one of the best business models of all time