The question of when a founder-CEO should stand aside and hand over the company to the "business-savvy suits" is discussed by Matthew Kirdahy on Forbes.com.
While successful company founders are "some winning combination of passion, perspiration, persistence, vision, creativity and technical expertise," explains Kirdahy, management nous is sometimes conspicuous by its absence from the mix. In those instances, founders can find it hard to let go.
Eleanor Bloxham, chief executive of management consultants Value Alliance, says this is "because they put in more than just their money. It's what they built their whole life around. To give it up to others who may not have that same level of passion is difficult."
To assist in making the right the decision, says Bloxham, the rest of the company's board should not be stacked with yes men but rather "people... contributing and adding real value".
According to Kirdahy, the "textbook solution" involves the founder accepting that he or she is more of an entrepreneur than a manager. They can then "hire seasoned talent to do the things [they] can't - be it making sales, managing cashflow, acquiring customers, building an organisation - and put in place a succession plan".
To support the case for this approach, Kirdahy offers the example of Google's co-founder presidents Sergey Brin and Larry Page appointing Eric Schmidt as chief executive in 2001.
Let It Go
Matthew Kirdahy, Forbes.com, 19/11/08
