Craig Barrett was there to assume the reins. And Coca Cola hasn't missed a beat since Doug Ivester took over as CEO after Roberto Goizueta passed away last fall. As directors of other companies begin their CEO searches in the next couple of years, they may hope to find themselves in the positions of Intel and Coca-Cola, but for many of them, they will be lucky if they can avoid the public embarrassments suffered by AT&T and Apple.
Unfortunately, this is because too many corporations, including many of the nation's largest, have failed to develop the leadership talent of the people in their ranks.
Depth of Talent
The stand-out exception is General Electric. At GE, not only does CEO Jack Welch have more than a half dozen highly talented contenders who are fully prepared to step in when he retires in the year 2000, but he has many more in the pipeline behind them. Last y e a r, Business We e k ran a report about the 20 executives most sought after by search firms looking for CEOs, and five of them were from GE.
See full Report, in pdf format.
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