EDITOR’S VIEW
RON DERBY: Can Ian Moir survive the ‘seven-year itch’ as Woolworths CEO?
A decade is as long as a person can stay relevant as a leader
In November Ian Moir will have been CEO of Woolworths for eight years. His last three at the helm have been as rocky a period as any for the man, who at one stage could do no wrong. The retailer's shares are now about 50% off their all-time high reached in March 2015 as the company prepares to report its first full-year loss in about 16 years after a bad expansion play in Australia. Now, managerial experts often speak of seven years as being the most opportune length of time for a CEO tenure; thereafter the pitfalls of incumbency may follow, pitfalls such as complacency and lack of innovation as a hardened attitude finds it difficult to entertain other people's ideas. Boards can also become so used to the power slides of the CEO that they too soon overlook holes in their arguments, or they are too scared to take on an all too powerful leader of their own creation. There are exceptions to the seven-year rule, of course, and some of the more colourful CEOs that strut their stuff among...
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