The long and short of a CEO’s transition time
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Telecom major Bharti Airtel has just announced a new CEO & MD, who will take charge 14 months from now—on 1 January 2026. That’s a long waiting period.
Is there an ideal CEO handover time? Mint explains. It depends. On 13 August, Starbucks fired its CEO Laxman Narasimhan and the new boss Brian Niccol took over in a month.
At Boeing, Kelly Ortberg took charge as CEO within days of the announcement. Elliott Hill’s transition as Nike CEO was within a month of the announcement. Both Starbucks and Boeing were grappling with performance issues, hence the quick transition.
Typically, if it’s a planned handover, the CEO starts in six months to a year of being announced. Investors and employees want to hear from leaders quickly to determine the direction a company is headed. No.
Take the case of adhesive and chemicals maker Pidilite Industries. It named Sudhanshu Vats as the managing director designate in February 2024. But he takes over in April 2025, when incumbent Bharat Puri steps down after the completion of his tenure.
In October 2024, pharma industry veteran Shyamakant Giri was appointed as the new CEO of Gland Pharma and he starts in his new role from 15 January 2025. In IT services companies, however, the transition times have been much shorter. In April this year, Srinivas Pallia replaced Thierry Delaporte as CEO of Wipro in about a week.
Read more: Peak XV is far from the Sequoia tree. Can it retain its parent’s aura? In the case of an external candidate, the handover period, barring crisis situations (like in the case of Starbucks or Boeing), could be longer, as the new hire spends time understanding the corporate culture, processes, organization structure, etc. In any ‘smooth’
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