BUSS4: New CEO - New Strategy

For students researching BUSS4 the arrival of a new CEO at a large, well-known business is great news! Whether the candidate is an internal or external appointment (itself an interesting angle), the new CEO will undoubtedly generate lots of coverage in the business media as she/he takes charge. Just as inevitably, the new CEO will instigate a strategic review designed to analyse and evaluate the strategic position of the business and the options for change.

6-12 months later you'll see details of the strategic review emerge, usually alongside the latest financial results and a summary of the analysis and choices made will be presented to shareholders, investment analysts and the other stakeholders. It all adds up to great news for BUSS4 students because a new CEO will generate lots of useful evidence on key topics such as:

• Current strategic/competitive position (think SWOT analysis, PEST analysis)
  
• Strategic direction (think Porter's Generic Strategies)
  
• Strategic choices - where to play and how to win: (think Porter again + Ansoff)
  
• Changes required - think change management
  
• The leadership style to be adopted
  
• A new set of corporate aims and objectives
  

In short, well-known businesses that get a new CEO are great case studies for BUSS4 students (and their teachers!)

So are there some good examples out there?

Here is a graphic in which I've listed nine new CEOs (when I say "new" - I mean the last year or so).

I've given you the names. Your first research task now is to identify the business they've taken charge of and also state whether their appointment was internal (i.e. promoted from within) or external (i.e. they came from another business).

Over to you...