CEO疑似职场不死鸟

    但是斯坦福大学的研究显示，这些杰出人物的职业命运取决于公司倒闭或陷入困境的原因是管理问题，还是治理问题。

    斯坦福大学商学院（Stanford Graduate School of Business）教授兼“公司治理研究项目”（Corporate Governance Research Program）总监戴维•拉克尔称：“公司聘用高管的目的非常明确，即承担战略风险，增加股东价值，但许多人最终无法达到预期。而公司监管人员则恰恰相反，公司聘用他们的目的是希望他们能够及时发现渎职行为。”

    但斯坦福大学近期的调查发现，受访的高管与董事中，有三分之二的人相信，倒闭公司的董事依然可以在其他公司的董事会获得成功。

CEO永远不缺少追逐者

    但只有三分之一的受访者认为，倒闭公司前任首席执行官能够在其他公司成为优秀的董事。此外，高管猎头公司海德思哲公司（Heidrick & Struggles）与斯坦福大学洛克公司治理中心（Rock Center for Corporate Governance）合作进行的2011年公司董事会调查（2011 Corporate Board of Directors Survey）显示，业界对CEO的问责标准更高。

    最近，风雨飘摇的科技公司雅虎公司毫不客气地辞退了卡罗尔•巴茨，她也辞去了在雅虎公司董事会的职务。但即便如此，她依然是思科（Cisco）董事会成员。而且，鉴于经验丰富的CEO人才如此稀缺，她要想另找一份肥缺也不无可能。

    加州大学洛杉矶分校法学院（UCLA School of Law）公司与证券法教授林恩•斯陶特称：“随着公司与员工彼此之间忠诚度的下降，高管跳槽的频率越来越高。因此，董事会很难从公司内部挑选一位知根知底的、才干优长的CEO候选人，迫使他们只能从外部寻找候选人。”

    而且，她说，如果董事会从外部寻找候选人，“很自然地就会偏向于聘用在其他公司担任过CEO的人选，而不是冒险从外部聘用一位从未担任过这一职务的新手。”

公司董事会“一家亲”

    公司经营不善，为何董事不会受到牵连？密歇根大学罗斯商学院（University of Michigan's Ross School of Business）教授尼尔•迪驰认为，原因之一是由于公司在选择董事人选时，主要还是依靠高管社交网络，因为“当出现职位空缺时，翻来覆去地不过就那么几个人选。”

    “有时，公司管理层会想‘既然我哥们对这个职务轻车熟路，谁还会愿意去培训一个菜鸟？’”

    实际上，许多高管同时在多家公司董事会任职，这只会让商业领袖的人才库日益枯竭。例如，新闻集团（News Corp.）近期公布的董事候选人詹姆斯•布莱尔，他不仅是风险投资公司Accel Partners的合伙人，同时还在戴尔（Dell）、沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）和Facebook，以及网络购物平台Etsy等公司担任董事。

    迪驰对此提出质疑：“这些人已经身兼数职，不堪重负，再给他们一个董事会成员的职位意义何在？毕竟这一职务涉及大量的工作，并且还要参加董事会议。”迪驰曾出版多本关于领导力的作品，包括《判断力：成功领袖怎样做出伟大的决断》（Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls）。他还说：“身兼多职还会造成利益冲突，而CEO已然从日常工作获得了报酬。” 

    But the Stanford study shows that the professional fates of such luminaries can pivot on whether a company's failure or failings were due to management or governance problems.

    "Executives are hired with the express purpose of taking strategic risk to increase shareholder value, some of which might not work out as hoped," says David Larcker, a professor of corporate governance at Stanford Graduate School of Business and director of its Corporate Governance Research Program. "Corporate monitors, by contrast," says Larcker, "are hired with the express purpose of detecting malfeasance."

    Yet a recent Stanford survey found that two-thirds of executives and directors questioned believe that directors who served on the board of a failed company can succeed as board members elsewhere.

CEOs get less of a break

    Only one-third agreed that a former chief executive of a failed company could be a good director at another company. And CEOs were held to a higher standard of accountability in the 2011 Corporate Board of Directors Survey conducted by executive recruiter Heidrick and Struggles and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford.

    Even so, Carol Bartz, who was unceremoniously ousted from struggling Yahoo recently and resigned from the tech company's board, remains on Cisco's (CSCO) board of directors. And she may yet land another plum position given the small pool of experienced CEOs.

    "As firm loyalty toward employees and employee loyalty towards firms declines, executives change jobs more frequently," says Lynn Stout, a professor of corporate and securities law at the UCLA School of Law. "This makes it harder for boards to find strong 'home grown' CEO candidates from within the firm and whom they know well, and forces them to look for outside candidates."

    Also, boards looking at outside candidates, she says, "will naturally be biased toward hiring someone who has already been a CEO elsewhere, rather than taking a chance on an outside candidate who has not held that position."

All in the corporate board family

    Why do directors so often escape without a scarlet letter? One reason is that the executive social network "still reigns" in selecting directors, says Noel Tichy, professor at University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, because "the same names are passed around when there are openings.

    "In some cases, the executive thinks 'Who wants to train a neophyte when I've got a buddy who already understands what the job is?'"

    The fact that many executives serve on multiple boards only reinforces the narrowness of the business leader pool. For example, News Corp.'s (NWSA) latest director nominee, James Breyer, is a partner at venture capital firm Accel Partners and a director at Dell (DELL), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Facebook as well as others like Etsy, Inc.

    "These are people who are already overloaded so what is the point of board membership, which involves a lot of work and attending meetings?" asks Tichy, who has written several books on leadership, including Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls. Also, he says, "it can create conflicts of interest, and the CEOs are already being paid for their day jobs."