WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

According to a report by public relations firm Weber Shandwick, “CEO departures at the world's 500 largest revenue-producing companies jumped 10 percent from 2006 to 2007.” When I recently came across an article that covered this report by Matthew Quinn in Financial Week entitled “CEO turnover up 50% at big North American businesses,” I found the results interesting. “…last year, there was a sizeable bump up in the number of chief executive departures attributed to non-traditional reasons, such as mergers, private equity buyouts, interim term completions and corporate governance restructuring.”
I thought about how this will have an impact on the traditional workforce. As I stated in a recent post, accomplished professionals and executives in unprecedented numbers are seeking challenging projects in which they can leverage their expertise. And for the businesses, hiring such individuals on a project basis at a variable cost is a very efficient way to complete necessary projects while averting any setbacks that can come from restructuring, mergers, etc.
I think the decline in average executive turnover will continue to accelerate over the next few years as the demographic shift begins to take hold and as a result, people will have more choices in where they want to work and what they want their impact to be. Executives are beginning to resemble (dare I say it) the millennial generation in that they are searching for nontraditional ways to work—garnering experience from more than one place with intentions of honing in on their true passions and talents for a more satisfying career.
While the report also revealed that nearly a third of departures were against the CEO’s will, I expect a reduction in forced resignations because it is going to become increasingly difficult to find great people and then it will be even harder to hold onto them.