Professor Details How Companies Can Groom "Inside Outsiders" As Future CEOs

Prof. Joseph Bower:
Counseling corporations
on succession

BOSTON - Dec. 6, 2007 -- With rising CEO turnover, companies are increasingly looking outside for top talent. While externally recruited candidates bring fresh perspectives, they lack the in-depth knowledge of the company's history and culture that is necessary for success.

The result is disappointing performances from many chief executives brought in from the outside. Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Bower has written a new book that delivers a clear and practical framework to help develop a robust cohort of internal candidates - one of whom may be suited to the increasingly demanding role of the CEO.

(Listen to a recent HBS Working Knowledge podcast with Professor Bower in which he discusses the need for companies to plan CEO succession ten years in advance.)

The CEO Within: Why Inside Outsiders Are the Key to Succession Planning (Harvard Business School Press) affirms that CEOs today wield enormous power and play a determining role in their companies' long-term future. What's the key to their success? A noted expert on CEO succession, Bower suggests the grooming of what he calls "inside outsiders." Though these leaders come from within the organization, they view their role through the lens of someone who just bought the company - unencumbered by the cognitive and emotional baggage that comes from a long tenure in the firm. At the same time, they make the most of the knowledge they have accumulated about the company's people, suppliers, customers, and future course.

Drawing on a decade of research and interviews with CEOs as well as the author's years of experience as a board member managing the subtleties of the succession process, The CEO Within shows how companies can put chief executives in place who will guide their organizations to exceptional performance.

Bower presents cogent insights and practical actions for helping companies identify what the CEO position entails; understand the mindset and skills that characterize the inside outsider; and use recruitment, development, and selection processes to nurture executives who will make good CEO candidates. With a healthy supply of internal candidates and a carefully considered succession plan in place, companies can get the leadership they need without resorting to last-minute initiatives and interim appointments.

About the Author
Joseph L. Bower, a Baker Foundation Professor at HBS, has been a member of the School's general management unit for more than forty years. An expert on corporate strategy, organization, and leadership, Bower has devoted much of his teaching and research to the challenges confronting corporate leaders in today's rapidly changing, hypercompetitive conditions. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles and has taught in both the MBA and Executive Education programs at the School.

About Harvard Business School
Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 70 Executive Education programs. For almost a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who have shaped the practice of business around the globe.