Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”

If you were Mark Anthony ruminating on Cleopatra, you might have had second thoughts today. After all, once a rose always a rose but once a Julius is enough.

So it must be with professional CEOs. A clear distinction needs to be made between the professionals and the men who start off businesses on their own. The latter can carry on till a merry old age and, until they start dribbling into their bibs, there is none to say nay. For the professional CEO, it’s a different ballgame altogether.

“Among the nearly 10,000 chief executive officers (CEO) of companies with a market capitalisation of more than £150 million, nearly half are in their fifties. Younger and older CEOs are globally quite rare, but not in all countries,” says The Financial Times. 

In India, we have had the impending retirement announcements of the top boss of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), A.M. Naik. What’s the big picture here?

The problem, one feels is of entertaining no competition. But that would have given rise to widespread discontent and resignations. That also does not appear to be true.

Are there any advantages in this long reign? Yes, certainly so. There is a continuity of corporate culture. The boss likes formal lunches; so everybody toes the line. The boss likes surprises, so make sure you celebrate: bring your pet to office day (but leave out crocodiles).

There is a reflection in non-trivial ways also. A whale on discipline will insist that others follow in his footsteps. A penny pincher will expect everybody else to go all the way — pinch pounds, if you will.

But there are negative aspects too. Imagine a generation with nowhere to go. They have reached the peak and there is not any hill left to climb, far less a mountain. American Pie is no patch on the diameter of a roomali roti.

“There we were all in one place/
 A generation lost in space/
 With no time left to start again./”

Such an organisation can only produce mediocrities. They might be well paid, enjoy lavish perks and go the way of Yahoo! and Google, which has decided to hide itself under the Alphabet umbrella. But at a pinch they will be found wanting, particularly in a situation they are not expecting.

So, is a hollow organisation better filled with ambitious men? The question doesn’t arise in most cases. More than 90 per cent of all firms in the world are family owned. The owner is obviously the boss. And (in most cases) the son or son-in-law takes over after him. Family-run businesses tend to go public over time and thus resort to professional

CEOs. It is only the rare professional company which inherits a long-serving CEO. Even there, unless there is a crisis, the situation seems implausible. 

But, answer one question if you will: Are the Tatas a professional group? Think JRD. Think Ratan. Think age.

 

Oldest CEOs  

Warren Buffett, 85
Serving for: 45 years

Sheldon Adelson, 81
Serving for: 25 years

Roger Penske, 78
Serving for: 16 years

Leslie Wexner, 78
Serving for: 52 years

Alan Miller, 77
Serving for: 37 years

Aldo Zucaro, 76
Serving for: 22 years

* CEOs of Fortune 500 giants in the US, as of early December 2015