Executives with years of experience behind them are to a greater and greater extent being recruited to help faltering companies get back on the road to success. This trend of bringing retired executive back up to the plate is continuing as the economy, and businesses, come out of crisis mode and begin the long climb to stability and success.
These older, but wiser executives are being used as “outside chairmen” to bring to the table their well-earned expertise to guiding companies out of the mud of financial instability into the clear waters of financial success.
As Dennis Carey, one of the key executive recruiters contributing to this trend puts it: "These chairmen are strategic equal partners of the CEO because they already demonstrated a successful 'in the trenches' style of management."
The new-old “outside chairmen” enter the picture by leading a board review of the company’s overall business strategy. In addition they evaluate the possibility of spinoffs and acquisitions, while simultaneously running the company in partnership with the CEO and also the business coach.
Since the idea is so successful it is not only utilized by struggling companies, but often companies that are doing just fine will bring in an outside chairman with years of experience in order to do even better. In the year 2004, for instance, only 14 former CEOs became chairmen of new companies, while today there are at least 46 ex-CEOs chairing different companies.
