Good morning.
I caught up yesterday with Chip Bergh and Michelle Gass, who have spent the last year executing one of the most interesting CEO transitions that I’ve seen.
Bergh has been CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. for 12 years, and his board wanted him to be succeeded by an insider. But he felt the company needed the skills that only an outsider could bring. So he persuaded Michelle Gass to leave her job as CEO of Kohl’s and join Levi’s as president...with the presumption, but no guarantee, that she would succeed him in 12-18 months.
