The Elephants Are Dancing At Bank of America
The elephants are dancing again, this time it’s over at Bank of America. Kenneth Lewis will be stepping down at the end of this year. The Wall Street Journal reports that BofA directors were ‘blindsided’ by his announcement, I’m not so sure about that, when he came back from a vacation in Aspen he came to work with a full beard which he saved off the next day. Some viewed it as a sign that something had changed. I’m inclined to agree. I even think he was encouraged to step down.
Whether he was or wasn’t encouraged to step down is a topic for another post, what is interesting is the lack of a real succession plan at BofA. The fact that they are considering bringing in an interim CEO for two years so internal candidates have more time to develop is going to be totally disruptive to this organization.
It’s not that they didn’t have examples of companies with successful session planning programs. General Electric had two of the top candidates for Jack Welch’s job move into CEO positions at other companies when Immelt was selected as his replacement. Albeit one more successful than other.
Bank of America’s board of directors should be taken behind the woodshed and give some old fashion corporal punishment for allowing this to happen. I challenge anyone who thinks this lack of planning won’t impact the motivation and productivity throughout the company, not to mention BofA’s customer base. Customers may not be aware or even care about BofA internal polictics but they do get upset with crappy service and will take out on the employees at the local branches.
While the elephants dance in the cornor offices, the lower level employees will be the recipients of the results of the internal jockeying and politicking that comes from the mischief that management engages in when they are running to beat each other to the finish line for the top position.
Benjamin Franklin said failure to plan is planning to fail. Those managers who are two years out for the top job will be doing whatever they feel is necessary to position them as the one to replace Lewis which means for the next two years employees and customers need to gear up for the fallout from this entirely preventable and unnecessary elephant dance.
October 1, 2009
Posted in: Leadership
2 Responses
Very relevant.
Thank you for your comment.
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