A recent article from Reuters reported that an influential public-sector union in the US has called for the separation of the roles of CEO and Chairman in nine big companies such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.The US, of course, is notorious for role duality at the top (a subject I have explored in great detail in my book “Leading the Board”. )Given it is CEOs who call the real corporate shots it is no surprise that many CEOs chose to combine the two roles. But what long term value can be realised through this arrangement?The problem is that Chairmen need to be able to fulfil two distinct roles. The first is to mentor the enterprise, that is to say befriend the management and support them through crises or complex market problems, which is no mean task...
Read more