Avoid these leaders’ shocking errors
Being told you are about to be fired is something no business professional wants to hear, least of all a CEO of a company.
Once the Board of Directors has made a decision to oust them, it’s likely the news will spread like wildfire in the industry and the errors that they made will be blown up for all to see.
Therefore, in order to prevent this from happening, Executive Grapevine has collated a list of some of the ways in which five well-known CEOs were fired, according to Go Banking Rates, and what mistakes they made so that you can avoid them in the future.
Andrew Mason, Founder of Groupon
While Mason was once the talk of Wall Street after he founded the global e-commerce marketplace, he was not immune from being removed. During his tenure, he was accused of not being able to increase or maintain share value, a key role many would consider of a CEO. In fact, the day before he was fired the stock lost a quarter of its total value in just six and a half hours, bringing the total decline under him to 77%.
Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple
During the early days of the global tech giant Apple, Jobs was unable to instill enough confidence in the firm’s investors to secure the role of CEO, which led Jobs to recruit the former PepsiCo CEO John Sculley for the role in 1983. However, fast forward to 1985, and Jobs was back trying to land the top job and confronted the Board, however, they continued to back Sculley and fired Jobs, although Sculley claims that Jobs decided to quit the business instead. But by 1997, Jobs was back at the firm where he held the position as CEO, and successfully paved the way for Apple to become one of the most valuable company’s in the world.
Travis Kalanick, CEO, Uber
Kalanick was caught up in several claims of a toxic culture while at Uber. Allegations went on to reveal that Uber supported a masculine culture where top executives were accused of playing fast and loose with regulators while ignoring assault charges and sexual harassment claims. This resulted in the termination of his tenure at the ride-hailing firm.
Elizabeth Holmes, CEO, Theranos
The CEO of the health technology corporation hit headlines after the blood test her company made was believed to be able to perform a series of tests with a single drop of blood, which could potentially disrupt the $75 billion blood-testing industry. This led to an increase in profits as Theranos’ valuation grew to $10 billion, while Holmes’ own net worth increased to $4.5 billion.
Unfortunately, the test had several major inaccuracies in its results, which Holmes had neglected to inform the media. After the fraud was exposed by The Wall Street Journal, Holmes was found guilty of ‘massive fraud’ by the SEC, who banned her from holding an officer position at a public company for a decade.
Dov Charney, CEO, American Apparel
American Apparel was recognized for its unique take on fashion because it was making clothes in the US and that it was paying its worker’s industry-leading wages. Despite this, though, the firm’s CEO tarnished the company’s reputation after an internal investigation discovered that Charney was accused of several cases of sexual misconduct. This led to him being fired by the Board.
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