A study reported by Harvard Business Review found that people who serve as CEOs of more than one company perform worse the second time around than chief executives without prior experience in the top job. It’s one data point that should help fuel a more diverse CEO cohort, by pushing back against the idea that experience as CEO is an advantage.
The HBR article, based on a study by headhunter Spencer Stuart of CEOs appointed over a 20-year period, found that among chief executives who ran two companies in a row, 70% performed better in their first stint, measured by shareholder returns. The researchers concluded that CEOs “fall back on the playbook from their last job,” HBR reported.
