When Nike said on Thursday that John Donahoe was stepping down as chief executive officer, his exit from a rocky tenure offered a brutal reminder to corporate boards: Focus on what a company's core business is when looking for a new CEO.
As Donahoe took over the top spot at Nike in early 2020, the company touted the former Bain management consultant and eBay CEO's extensive tech industry chops and Silicon Valley touch. He had been at eBay between 2008 and 2015, and his job just before Nike was as CEO of a cloud computing company. At the time, the sports gear maker claimed it was becoming something of a tech company. Nike was launching its own apps, and wanted sell more of its products directly to consumers on its web site and own stores, a push that was priority for co-founder Phil Knight.
