Memo to would-be CEOs: Next time a company founder approaches you about taking the reins from them, run in the opposite direction as fast as you can. As we were reminded on Wednesday, when former Amazonian Dave Clark said he was yielding the top job at freight forwarder Flexport to founder Ryan Petersen, successfully filling a founder’s shoes involves more than ensuring they’re the right size. Clark joins a long list of CEOs—at companies ranging from Dell to Starbucks—who suddenly found themselves unemployed when a founder decided, for one reason or another, that their successor wasn’t handling things the way they liked.
And it’s not just founders who have regrets. Longtime CEOs can sometimes find it hard to retire. Exhibit A is Disney CEO Bob Iger, as CNBC detailed today with this deep dive into the drama that happened when Iger gave up the reins to Bob Chapek and very quickly regretted it. We’ll surely get a similar history about the Flexport saga before too long. But Clark’s tweet today announcing his decision didn’t leave much to the imagination. Clark acknowledged that “founders have the right to change their mind” and that he joined “to do big things,” but Petersen wanted to “return to focusing on growth in the core freight business.” It was quite a change from Petersen’s announcement last year that he had hired Clark to ensure Flexport would “live up to our potential,” reflecting his desire to dramatically expand the company.
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