I don't believe anyone who claims that "insiders make the best CEOs" or "outsiders make the best CEOs." I believe people who tell me that it depends on the circumstances. Joseph Bower is promoting the "inside outsider" over on Marketplace. According to Bower, the "inside outsider" is "an outstanding inside performer who has retained his or her objectivity." This reminds me of one of my students, who resolved a posited conflict in class last week by simply changing the facts to remove the conflict. Of course, everyone wants a CEO who is competent, objective, and fair. In other words, we want a person who combines the best attributes of both an insider and an outsider without the liabilities inherent in either position. The trick is to find that person.

Bower is an HBS professor pitching a new book, and the "insider outside" is one of those cute management concepts for which HBS is renowned. Bower has a rather mundane solution to the succession issue: planning.  Funny that his commentary mentions Time Warner as a company with recent struggles. If you are old enough to remember when Time and Warner were separate companies, you will also remember the famous succession plan that gave us Gerald Levin, architect of T-W's acquisition of AOL. Just an anecdote ... or perhaps a cautionary tale about procedural panaceas.

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