Many CSOs and sustainability staff enjoy support from their company’s C-suites, but it isn’t a good idea to rely too heavily on that. Last month, I wrote that the rapid decline in CEO tenure is a threat to corporate sustainability/ESG program support, longevity and effectiveness. Executive recruiting firm Korn Ferry thinks the CEO turnover isn’t likely to slow anytime soon:
“According to a recent estimate, some 222 CEOs left their roles in January, the highest number for the month in at least 23 years. This comes after a record 2,221 top bosses – at US public, private, or government organizations – left their posts in 2024, a figure which itself topped the prior record of 1,914 set a year earlier. Some of these leaders are leaving of their own accord; others are being pushed out…
And the CEO exodus is likely to continue in 2025, experts say, despite the disruption it causes. Each of the past five years has had a unique, if not unprecedented, challenge for CEOs—in order, the pandemic, the pandemic recovery, the Great Resignation, inflation, a credit crunch, and now a major change in US government policies… Many chief executives are getting heat from the boardroom as well. Directors, themselves under pressure from a surge in activist investors, are showing less patience with CEOs who aren’t delivering positive results…
When a CEO quits, it’s almost always a shock to the system…”
We’ve seen a few high-profile examples of CEO changes bringing shocks to company sustainability philosophies: Unilever, BP, and Danone to name perhaps the most visible. Sustainability programs and initiatives should rely on business value rather than whims or convictions of the CEO. The compliance aspect can’t be ignored, but global regulatory chaos brings much uncertainty to that element. The strongest plank of sustainability’s platform is cross-functional value in business fundamental terms.
Our members can learn more about the business case for sustainability here and our Guidebook Simplifying ESG/Sustainability Business Value.
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