MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Set Up to Fail

Why is the average tenure of a C-suite executive a brief 5.3 years? And why do chief marketing and chief information officers last barely more than four years in the job, on average?1

The answer may lie between the lines of the job specifications shopped around by executive recruiters. One of us (Kimberly A. Whitler) was approached to gauge interest in a CMO position and, as she reviewed the 12-page job spec, realized that she couldn’t in good conscience recommend anyone for the role. Based on the responsibilities, expectations, and ideal candidate qualifications described in that document, the role was poorly designed. It was setting up the incoming CMO for failure.

About the Author

Kimberly A. Whitler (@kimwhitler) is the Frank M. Sands Sr. Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, a former chief marketing officer, and author of Positioning for Advantage (Columbia University Press, 2021). Ed Tazzia is a principal at Sycamore and Co., a management consulting firm specializing in executive recruiting; global chairman of the P&G Alumni Network; and coauthor of Crafting Persuasion (1845 Publishing, 2019). Stephen Mann is a senior associate at JPMorgan Chase and a former Darden School of Business research assistant.

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