“We need to grow. Open up new markets. Implement AI. Drive the ESG transformation. And the manufacturing footprint isn’t right any more!”
Most of the advisory board nods. The CEO leaves the meeting with a list of projects that a company three times the size would struggle to handle.
Six months later, the CEO has failed. The board is looking for a successor.
Two weeks ago, the CEO of a medtech manufacturer was unusually frank with me. “You know,” he said, “they’re all highly intelligent bankers and consultants. Plus a few CEOs from the golden era. But put them together and they haven’t a clue about operational execution. And right at the end they say: ‘And we should try this too!’”
It isn’t an isolated case. Boards lose touch with operational reality. What sounds coherent in the boardroom (“We can do it”) collapses because everything is demanded at once.
Everyone pretends PowerPoint doesn’t matter any more. Yet we keep being shown slides that look convincing on screen but fall apart on the complexity of execution.
The fatal part: rousing speeches (“Yes, we can”) mobilise people, but there’s no operational plan behind them. The result: fragmented projects, exhausted teams, failed CEOs.
The CEO is replaced. But was he really the problem?
Often it’s advisory and supervisory boards that build up pressure without understanding operational reality. They demand growth without asking: with what resources? In what time frame? Which projects have to pause to make room?
They set goals that sound good but can’t be delivered.
The problem: boards have influence without operational responsibility. They define the “what”, leave the “how” to the CEO, and hold him responsible when it fails.
To break this pattern, three plus one factors need checking when you appoint a CEO:
1. Can the candidate tell strategic vision from operational feasibility? Have they ever stopped projects that couldn’t be delivered, even against resistance?
2. Can they push back on boards and investors? Do they say no to unrealistic demands? Someone who only nods in the interview will fail in the job.
3. Can they pick three projects out of ten and deliberately park the rest? CEOs sometimes fail not for lack of vision, but for lack of focus.
The “plus one” question for advisory and supervisory boards isn’t “Do we have the right CEO?”
It’s “Have we created the conditions for a CEO to succeed?”
If the answer is no, the next CEO will fail too.
