“The insiders or the outsiders?”

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According to Workforce.com, CEOs are turning over more often and in more companies than ever, prompting corporations to reconsider where they look for talent for these top spots – inside or outside the company.

While more and more companies are choosing new chiefs from within, the article states that there are benefits to at least looking at candidates from outside as well.

Steve Krupp, CEO of Decision Strategies International, says organizations need to identify the leadership skills and attributes needed to achieve the future business strategy.  “There has to be time spent developing what the criteria are: What is the profile of the CEO of the future?” Krupp said. “That is the conversation that happens first.”

Jane Stevenson, who leads the global CEO succession practice at Korn Ferry International, advises that boards work with the chief human resources officer, then use the criteria to identify potential candidates internally and compare them with executives externally. “It helps boards to hold leadership to a different standard because they start to see where the leadership stacks up and to have a firsthand perspective,” Stevenson said.

Comparing internal to external candidates also gives the board something to trumpet, said Charley Polachi, managing partner at Boston-based Polachi Access Executive Search. “The board can say to the press and the industry analysts, ‘We did a thorough and exhaustive search. We looked at a dozen candidates, and at the end of the day the best person to do this job is right here.’”

And when is it appropriate to choose a new CEO from outside the company? Professor of strategy at the University of Michigan, Jim Westphal, said, when a company needs dramatic change in strategy, it should at least consider outsiders.  Chief executives plucked from outside the company are more willing to make big changes.

Source: Workforce.com, March 10/2014 by Todd Henneman
Read the full article here.