Why a CFO or a COO may not fit as the CEO?

Look at Apple and how selection of John Sculley at the helm nearly killed Apple.Sculley it is said was obsessed competing with IBM.

When Michael Dell stepped down and Kevin Rollins took over , same story which is why the same way Apple brought back Steve Jobs , Dell had to bring back Michael Dell.

Something similar happened to Microsoft when Steve Ballmer took charge.

All these individuals Steve Ballmer , Kevin Rollins , John Sculley inspite of being super talented miserably failed as CEO’s.

This is because as CFO or COO a person can succeed inspite of not putting people’s priorities first.

Whereas in the infinite game without putting people priorities first a CEO can succeed in the long term but never in the long term.Once the focus shits first to bottomline and numbers the company culture and internal trust takes a huge beating.

Simon Sinek brings out this point in his book titled “The Infinite Game”.