- In today’s CEO Daily: Peter Vanham talks to new Bain chairman Manny Maceda.
- The big story: Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine.
- The markets: Surprisingly calm, given all the drama.
- Analyst notes from EY, Convera, and Wedbush.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. As readers of CEO Daily know, it’s hard to get CEO/Chair succession right. But after observing hundreds of companies going through the process, Bain & Company—the $6-billion-a-year management consulting firm that says it has worked with 67% of the Fortune Global 500—thinks it has cracked the code.
As Fortune is first to report, Orit Gadiesh, Bain’s chairman of 32 years, is announcing her new “emeritus” role, and making way for Manny Maceda, who until last year was the CEO of the management consulting firm. (Christophe De Vusser, meanwhile, replaced Maceda as CEO, having been appointed to a once-renewable 4-year term last Summer.)
“What we found is, thoughtful rotation, which we do at all levels of our firms, is healthy,” Maceda told CEO Daily. “It helps you think succession planning. It helps you build the firm for the next generation. So in all of our leadership roles, there’s generally a timeframe in mind. I’m sure in this one as well. But it won’t be 30 years.”
CEO-turned-chairman Maceda does not worry too much about a Disney or Starbucks scenario, where the CEO-turned-chair leaves too little maneuvering space for the new CEO. “I’ve watched the movie with many of our clients, and in our own firm,” Maceda said. “We have a CEO who is in charge, that’s Christophe. There are checks and balances with a separate nominating committee. And in my case, I’m not executive chairman, but I’ll be a resource for him, and share the load. That’s the intent,” Maceda said.
Beyond the checks and balances, another element of the succession contributed to Maceda being able to let go of his executive mindset, he told me: he took a few months of sabbatical leave after stepping down as CEO last summer, giving a clean break for his successor to ease into the job without Maceda in the daily flow.
As for the future, Maceda—who started working at Bain in 1989—pointed to two challenges Bain’s CEO will face: Helping clients navigate increasingly complex supply chains, and operating in today’s fraught political environment. “The time where you make a statement [on a social issue], it has largely passed,” he says. “We’ve been taking our own advice. We go straight down the middle. — Peter Vanham
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Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady, diane.brady@fortune.com, LinkedIn.
