Erica Diehn, a professor of management at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, spoke with KARE 11 about a wave of CEO transitions at major companies. Dean explained that rapid change, evolving technology and post-pandemic pressures are contributing to leadership turnover, with many organizations opting for internal, gradual succession plans to maintain stability while adapting to new challenges.
From the conversation:
Kent Erdahl: Erica Diehn is a professor of management at the University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business. She says many companies seem to put off that transition after all the uncertainty following the COVID pandemic, but many, especially in retail, are now realizing they can’t wait anymore.
Diehn: The pace of change has been so accelerated and AI, of course, has magnified that times a million. Many leaders are in what we’d call a chaos fatigue, right? They’re constantly adapting, and there’s something new around the corner, and we have to be constantly learning. And so we’re moving from that expert CEO to that agility of learning.
Erdahl: Everything seems to be fraught with challenge. Brian Campbell is a leader at the Conference Board, a business-orientated think tank which has tracked the rise in so called CEO churn, but says companies like Target, Best Buy and even Apple, which also just announced a CEO transition plan, are betting on a slow succession over a big splash in the stock market. ...
