Good morning.
Yesterday’s CEO Daily focused on Carol Tomé—a former CFO (Home Depot) who has already doubled her company’s market value as a new CEO (UPS). But a new study suggests Tomé may be the exception. Spencer Stuart looked at the performance of 1,300 CEOs since the turn of the millennium and found that ex-CFOs generally underperform. The study found that 85% of CEOs fell into one of four categories—former CFO, former COO, former divisional CEO, and “leapfrog” leaders who came from below the second layer of management. The conclusion: “Leapfrog” leaders were the most likely—41.2%—to rank in the top quartile of CEOs for performance. Ex-CFOs were the least likely—7.9%.
