Under Armour CEO’s shock exit is another example of the executive chair curse
Good morning.
Under Armour announced yesterday that CEO Stephanie Linnartz is stepping down after just one year in the job and being replaced by—guess who?—founder Kevin Plank, who was her predecessor and had stayed on as executive chairman. I can’t speak to who is better equipped to lead the brand. But I can, once again, say this: companies need one CEO at a time.
It was only last September that Rosalind Brewer stepped down as CEO of Walgreens, where her predecessor Stefano Pessina had remained as executive chairman. I’m sure both Brewer and Linnartz went into their jobs confident they had skills to handle the substantial egos of their respective bosses. I’ll leave the gender analysis to others, but regardless of gender, human nature is what it is. Any ex-CEO is going to feel the instinct to protect his or her legacy. And any new CEO is going to see things that he or she wants to change. When the two collide, who gets to make the call?
Worth remembering Linnartz was available for hire because the Marriott board decided it didn’t want co-CEOs. The late Arnie Sorenson installed Linnartz and Anthony Capuano as acting co-chiefs when he was sidelined by cancer. But after Sorenson died, Capuano was given the top job, and Linnartz made president. No one was shocked when she left.
The story is complicated by the fact that Bill Marriott stayed on as executive chairman of Marriott for a decade after Sorenson became CEO. And that clearly didn’t stop Sorenson—the first CEO who wasn’t a member of the Marriott family—from taking control of the company and leading it to new heights. But the exceptions don’t negate the rule. Keeping a prior CEO around as executive chairman for more than a very brief transition is a bad idea. Let’s hope Linnartz, who has always struck me as a very savvy executive, finally gets a chance to run her own show.
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Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
