You're In Charge — Now What?

Research Methodology

In researching You’re in Charge — Now What?, Tom Neff and Jim Citrin studied more than 100 leadership transitions and conducted in-depth interviews with 50 CEOs who took the job in the past three years. This included internally promoted CEOs, external placements and CEOs who had been parachuted into companies in crisis.

Leaders of major corporations, private companies, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations were included in the study, as well as those whose succession was planned and those that weren’t.

The authors evaluated successful CEOs as well as those CEOs whose performances resulted in their tenure being cut short. Corporate board members and succession committee chairs were interviewed and the opinions of those most affected by new CEO accessions — human resources executives, functional executives and divisional presidents — were gathered to gain a different perspective.

References also were taken from secondary sources including articles, books and specialized studies.