“CEO churnover” is a symptom of volatility

I’ve spent the last few years working on a book about the forces that tear companies apart, both internal and external. So I can’t say I was surprised to read some of the stats in this recent piece in the Financial Times about what they dub “CEO churnover.” For starters, “Chief executive turnover in the world’s largest listed companies reached a new record for the second year in a row in 2025, rising 16 per cent from 2024, and 21 per cent above an eight-year average.” Along the same lines, another study found that the average stint in the CEO role is now seven years, down from eight-plus just a few years back. 

There are a number of reasons for this particular revolving door. Of course some CEO departures are the product of organized succession planning. But many more are caused by other forces. First, there are various forms of internal chaos (the FT calls out conflicts of interest and ill-advised office romance but they’re hardly alone).

Second, there’s external pressure from activist investors with their eyes on a short-term prize. As the piece notes, “In the US, 32 CEOs resigned within one year of an activist campaign, a 40 per cent increase on the four-year average.” Barclays Bank counts 141 such campaigns in the U.S. in 2025 – a number that’s 23% higher year-over-year. (For comparison, Japan had a record-breaking 56, European investors launched just 40, an 18% year-over-year decline.)

Equally notable is the rise in interim CEOs, which had a 6% jump in the first half of 2024 compared to the same time period in 2024. There’s also a striking increase in external hires for the role at S&P 500 companies in lieu of promoting from within, which nearly doubled last year.  

A Signal of Volatility

Constantly changing CEOs are a symptom of volatility. And volatile companies damage everything they touch, quite often on the way to self-destruction. My new book, Incorruptible, is all about how we can build companies in ways that protect them and also ensure they they don’t hurt themselves or anyone else, so I was really pleased to see this post about it from the folks at Unshackled Ventures.

Unshackled funds and supports immigrant entrepreneurs, who, as they note in the piece, “understand volatility because they’ve lived inside it. As a result, they often build with a longer arc in mind, not just product-market fit, but societal fit.” 

A processing engineer in Texas named Danny Hicks, “spent years commuting hours each way to oil field jobs that were dangerous, unpredictable, and volatile. Some weeks, there was work. Some weeks, there wasn’t. Benefits were uncertain. Planning, in any real sense, wasn’t an option.” When the opportunity to work at a nearby company in Unshackled’s portfolio arose, he took it and found, along with a shorter commute, health care, training, an intangible but equally crucial benefit: stability.

To Unshackled, his is a story “about what becomes possible when volatility recedes. About how early design decisions, often made far from the people they eventually affect, ripple outward into real lives.” I’m honored they’ve connected my work with this inspiring story about the possibility of change and the effects of building companies for stability, growth, and human flourishing. 

Unshackled partner Shaherose Charania gave me valuable feedback at various stages of the book-writing process, so I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be doing a LinkedIn Live talk with her later this month (details below). I’m looking forward to hearing more stories about how companies built to stay true to their missions thrive and share their success.

LinkedIn Live: The Investment Case for Incorruptible Companies

Join me and Shaherose Charania, Partner at Unshackled Ventures, for a conversation about the companies that stay true to their mission as they scale.

We'll explore how to invest in companies built to resist short-term pressure, how mission interacts with returns, and what founders and investors can do to design organizations that create outsized value.

Thursday, March 12

10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern

RSVP Here →

Pre-order Incorruptible

The most important thing for a successful book launch is a lot of preorders. 

So here’s my humble ask: If you liked The Lean Startup or anything else I’ve written or done, order a copy of Incorruptible as soon as possible. 

After you purchase, you’ll be able to claim these 5 bonuses (and whatever else I dream up between now and May 26!)

For those of you who’ve already pre-ordered, thank you. 

Eric