The Retail Leadership Lens

A few years ago I placed a chief executive into a consumer business everyone expected him to turn around. He did. Three years in, the numbers were good, the board was content, and he called me for what I assumed would be a catch-up. Halfway through, he said something I have not forgotten. The last genuinely candid conversation he could remember, the last time anyone had looked at him and said "I think you are wrong about this," had been with a former colleague at a differe

At the end of last month, Princes Group announced that its chief executive, Simon Harrison, was stepping down after two years in the seat to pursue a new opportunity. By the following morning the business had an answer of sorts. Giuseppe Mastrolia, the chief commercial officer, would run the company as interim chief executive while a formal search for a permanent successor got under way. As these announcements go, it was orderly.

Think about how much preparation goes into a leader before they ever reach the top. The graduate scheme. The first management course. The stretch assignment, the secondment, the MBA the company part-funded, the leadership programme with the five-figure invoice. Years of deliberate investment in getting someone ready. Then they get the job. And it stops.