David Cohen Quotes

CEOs resign when the internal dynamics of the company and the external dynamics of the company actually come together to say it is appropriate. When the internal dynamics ask you whether you have a replacement. I think the transition from CEOships have also become cartoonish.

I think there's few cases in history where the C.E.O. steps down and is also the founder and reports to someone and that works.

The industry has to learn how to do CEO succession well. If your definition of success is Intel or Microsoft or HP or IBM, that's not a good track record, and yet they are the most successful ones.

When I came into the CEO office, I basically changed the entire management team. We knew that we had to change the company, so we needed a new set of leaders.

I do not want to be a long-term CEO.

A critical question to ask when bringing in a new CEO to take the reins of a company you started is: Do you want someone who will maintain company culture or reinvent it?

A lot of what I do is running businesses rather than buying stocks. My worst decision is probably when I know I have the wrong chief executive running the business, and I keep on waiting to make the difficult decision of replacing him.

Go for a business that any idiot can run - because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.

As a company grows from 25 to 50 to 100 to 200 to 500 to 1000 people, the characteristics of who is the very best talent in leadership roles will change. It's rarely the case that your leadership team at 1000 people is the same leadership team you had a 25 people.

CEOs can stay too long.

If a better person emerges, I will hand over management control.

During the time of Webex growing from $0 to greater than $700M, the company was sold to Cisco. The Webex team lost the passion and drive to further grow the business because many Webex veterans left and Cisco's integration with Webex was not successful.

Any slots at the senior level, including CEO or other slots, will be filled internally.

Fidelity does have a succession plan in place to ensure a smooth transition.

The question was, in a sense, at Princeton Review, how much value was I adding as a public company CEO. I was adding less than other people might've... I think you want to move on when you've given your best work and then feel that you're not going to add as much value moving forward.

Other men have created FTSE 100 companies. But I believe no man has done this in his lifetime without acquisition or borrowing. My one regret is handing over the reigns.

In any business that grows big on one business model, transitions can throw everything in the air.

We want to move along and make sure, both internally and externally, that people realize how the company is being run, and it's being run by a group of people now, not just me.

After four years as Administrator of the SBA, I have let President Obama know that I will not be staying for a second term. I will stay on until my successor is confirmed to ensure a smooth and seamless transition.

Every time a new CEO came, I got a promotion till I was made CEO myself.

If you go through some big corporate change, it's just not going to be the same. If we sold to Yahoo, they would have done something different; if you want to continue your vision of the company, then don't sell because there's inevitably going to be some change.

At IBM, if we kept our same leadership for 36 years, we'd be bankrupt.

I started at Pillsbury as a manager in one of their analysis functions, then worked my way up the corporate ladder to become vice president. Moving to Burger King was an important moment in my career.

My feeling is unless they've somebody lined up and they are convinced he is going to be better than Brian, I think their decision has been made in haste.

Abby Johnson has agreed to become Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity, reflecting a further step forward in our leadership succession plan. Abby will retain her role of President, and I will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.