WHY DO CEOS SWITCH JOBS?

Hindustan Times

A handsome salary is always the deciding factor for any person to keep his job and also to change it. At the same time, that something extra is what makes working a pleasure and a CEO is not averse to it. Here are a few reasons that force or lure a CEO into changing his or her workplace.

The challenge counts.

“Perks at the CEO level are more or less comparable and not really a deciding factor for changing the job. But I am yet to meet a CEO who does not move for a greater challenge,” says Rachna Saksena, practice head – ITeS & HR research – Ma Foi Global Search Services Limited. ‘Challenging’, she adds, is how you define the word – the ‘risk element’ is directly proportionate with the returns. In addition to challenge, the company’s brand pull, its balance sheet, future plans and credentials of the executive board also count.

Work satisfaction is another important component for the CEO. He/she could get bored of his/her job profile and yearn for new challenges in about 4-5 years, on an average. When the job ceases to be challenging and interesting, the CEO will look around for something else.

Opting for variety

“One of the reasons why CEOs seeks job change is variety and enrichment in experience,” says James Agrawal, head, BTI Consultants India. There are many successful CEOs who have joined smaller and young /start-up organisations so that could build the company ground up and personally recruit their core leadership group.

There are examples of CEOs who have turned down lucrative global opportunities to work in a challenging and high growth environment in India and others who have joined sunrise sectors such as real estate and retail so that they can apply their past experience to manage new challenges. So variety often goes hand in hand with challenge.

“When you are a CEO of a company, your perks become secondary. It’s what you have contributed to the firm and the growth chart, that becomes more important,” says Datta Shiraz, head, marketing, India region, Cincom.

Perks are important

Though perks are not the only deciding factor for a CEO, they should not be neglected either. Perks are the ‘interest’ that the CEO gets from his job. “Super perks are among the major reasons for many CEOs to rethink about their job,” says Shiraz. A lot of firms do offer what would, at a glance, look outrageous as perks to their CEOs.

These perks may not even be direct payments to the CEO; they could well be benefits offered to his family – paid-for family holidays, club memberships, all medical expenses paid for self, family and dependent parents, two company maintained cars, scholarships for children’s study abroad, even fully furnished accommodation and company-maintained household staff, for example.