Comments on: 7 Reasons CEOs Fail

By: Clark Waterfall

Clark Waterfall — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:01:38 +0000

Sure. However, would want to get attribution for this if it is used.

By: namnseh amos

namnseh amos — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:15:09 +0000

Dear Sir,
I want to thank you for this research work and the information embedded in it. I wanted to find out if I could leverage on your work, and if you would be kind to permit me to use this material in my book (title: so you call yourself a ceo).

By: Venture Capital perspective on Why CEOs Most Often Fail | BSG Blog

Venture Capital perspective on Why CEOs Most Often Fail | BSG Blog — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:29:21 +0000

[...] 7 Reasons CEOs Fail [...]

By: Venture Capital Survey:Top Reasons CEOs Fail | BSG Blog

Venture Capital Survey:Top Reasons CEOs Fail | BSG Blog — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:27:56 +0000

[...] 7 Reasons CEOs Fail [...]

By: 10 things to learn on March 27th

10 things to learn on March 27th — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:13:01 +0000

[...] 7 Common Reasons CEOs Fail | BSG Blog After spending a decade or more as an executive recruiter working on early & growth-stage CEO searches, it seems worthwhile to take a look-back on some of the reasons CEOs seem to fail. In fairness, we’re a boutique firm, so the sample set isn’t hundreds of searches. However, it’s also more than anecdotal, as for every CEO search we’ve done, there was a high probably that there were several CEOs who had already come before our search, and in doing a thorough CEO replacement search, we are students of why predecessors failed in order to ensure we don’t repeat others’ past mistakes. Another macro observation is that these failures don’t seem to be different from practice area to practice area, or geographic region to geographic region. [...]

By: Siva

Siva — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:42:09 +0000

Informative article. I think the Promoter-CEOs of start-up companies have a higher probability of failure than the home-grown/groomed CEOs. One of the major reasons for this could be the unrealistic assumptions which some CEOs hold while venturing into a business. If their projections and plans are based on a dream-like scenario and when they are shocked into the real world, they find it extremely difficult to accept the facts. The failure to live up to the dream-like all-optimistic financial projections based on theoretical assumptions can cause disappointment and dis-orientation not just to the CEO but to the entire team. It may also happen that the assumptions which were true while planning for the business might have changed subsequently. Either way, it is necessary to use realistic expectations while planning and preparing the financial models for new businesses. They can build in flexible assumptions to provide for unanticipated changes in future. This is all the more important for the web-based IT businesses whose entire business model may have to be revamped sometimes.
You can visit http://www.financialmodel.net to learn more about practical financial modelling.

By: FN

FN — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:19:07 +0000

You should do a survey of VC’s and ask them why they fired the last CEO and let them pick 3 reasons (in order of priority). Then survey CEOs and ask them. Would be really interesting to see the 2 versions…