culled from:articlecity.com
We’ve witnessed a media firestorm over the past few weeks, as several CEOs resigned as heads of their respective companies. Target CEO Greg Steinhafel stepped down earlier this month in the aftermath of Target’s data breach. Former RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal was fired as CEO of the company he founded just a week after he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of battery. These are just two of many examples of dramatic CEO successions, but history has proven that leadership shuffles are never pretty. Here are five of the most memorable CEO transition stories.
Steve Jobs, Apple
Steve Jobs founded Apple Computers in his California garage when he was 21 years old. Flash forward nine years to 1985 when he was forced out of the company because of disagreements with former CEO John Sculley and other company executives. Sculley disagreed with Jobs’ company within the company that focused mainly on Macintosh computers and their power struggle eventually led to Jobs’ loss of control over Macintosh. Jobs was stripped of his responsibilities and he resigned from the company.
Klaus Kleinfeld, Siemens
Up until 2007, Siemens had never hired an outsider to serve as CEO. Former Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld was caught up in a bribery scandal, for which the company eventually paid $1.6 billion in fines. Until he resigned, there had been little question among the board of directors as to whether or not he would be reinstated as the head of Siemens. This scandal created a sense of urgency for reform, changes that would have otherwise been much too difficult to achieve. These changes began with hiring Peter Löscher, the first CEO of Siemens to come from outside of the company.
William Perez, Nike
In 2005 William
Perez
left his C-level position at S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. to head up Nike as its CEO. After only one year on the job, Perez resigned from the athletic footwear giant. This resignation was prompted by a disagreement between Perez and Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, on the strategy of how to run the company. Unable to reach a compromise, Perez was forced out and resigned, replaced immediately by Nike veteran Mike Parker.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
Last February of 2013 Steve Ballmer stepped down as CEO of Microsoft, a transition that many have applauded. Ballmer resigned on his own terms, as company growth had been slowing and he believed that the company could change faster without him. After 14 years as CEO, Ballmer was unable to keep pace with competing companies’ technological advancements. While he claims to have decided to resign on his own, the process was hurried along by the nine-member Microsoft board.
Brendan Eich, Mozilla
Perhaps the most dramatic of all CEO successions was the resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich. After serving as CEO for only 11 days, Eich was pressured to step down because of his stance against gay marriage, as evidenced by his donation towards Proposition 8 in California six years prior. The decision was strongly influenced by the Mozilla community, which was outraged by Eich’s antigay views. The board offered Eich another C-level position, but he declined.
Serving as the chief executive of a company is a major responsibility and, oftentimes, an unpredictable position. As long as CEOs remain quasi-celebrities in the public eye, any signs of conflict or dissent will remain topics of discussion in media outlets. Leadership transitions are often smooth, but sometimes they boil over into full-blown crises.
