When your company needs a new leader, ‘Insider or Outsider?’ is the wrong question (opens in new tab)

In the fall of 2024, two iconic American brands hit the wall in roughly the same quarter, and their boards reached in opposite directions. , who had spent more than three decades inside the company before retiring. , picking a leader who had never sold a single latte. Same crisis, opposite bets. It was part of a record wave: U.S. public companies announced more CEO changes in 2024 than in any year since. The choice almost always gets framed as a choice between an insider and an outsider. I wi...