Executive departures that open doors

Everyone watches for new executives. Fewer people watch for the ones walking out. But a departure can open a door that's been shut for years.

When a leader leaves, their decisions become questions. That includes the vendors they picked.

Why a departure matters

A senior leader who's been in a seat for five or six years has built a world around them. Their team, their priorities, their vendors and their way of running things. Outside firms that weren't part of that world had a hard time getting in.

Then the leader leaves. Maybe they retire, maybe they're pushed, maybe they take a bigger job elsewhere. Either way, the company has a gap, and gaps get filled with change.

The person who fills the seat will review what they inherited. The interim leader, if there is one, won't want to make big commitments but will want to understand the mess. And the people who reported to the departed leader may suddenly have more say, or less.

Every one of those is an opening.

Which departures matter most

A departure in the seat that buys your work matters most. If you sell to CIOs and the CIO at a target account just left, that's your strongest signal at that account, often stronger than a new hire would be, since it comes first.

A sudden departure matters more than a planned one. A planned retirement comes with a successor who's been groomed and briefed. A sudden exit, especially one with "effective immediately" in the announcement, usually means something wasn't working. The next person will be hired to fix it.

A departure paired with business pressure matters a lot. If a COO leaves the same quarter a 10-K mentions margin pressure and a cost program, the board probably wanted a different approach. The new COO will arrive with a mandate.

And a departure of the leader who chose your competitor matters to you directly. The incumbent's sponsor is gone. The incumbent is now just another vendor.

What to watch next

A departure starts a short sequence, and you want to be early in it.

First, watch for an interim. Interim leaders rarely buy large engagements, but they often commission assessments, since they want to hand the next leader a clear view of what's broken. That's a smaller deal and a good way in.

Then watch for the search. Job posts for the seat, or LinkedIn activity from search firms, tell you the timeline.

Then watch for the arrival. A new leader in the first 90 days is one of the strongest signals there is. If you've already been useful to the interim or the team, you're not a cold name when they arrive. See the first 90 days of a new CIO for how that window works.

An example opener

Say the long-time CIO of a regional insurer leaves suddenly. A VP of infrastructure is named interim CIO. The company's last 10-K mentions a multi-year core systems modernization that's behind schedule.

Saw that you've stepped in as interim CIO, with the modernization program already running behind. In the interim seat, you'll be asked for an honest read on where things stand before the next CIO arrives. My guess is the status reporting on the program has been optimistic, and nobody has a clean view of what's left. Is that accurate, or is the bigger issue something else?

It's written to the interim's real situation, not the departed leader's. It gives them something useful to do with the time they have.

What to avoid

Don't celebrate the departure. Never write anything that sounds like you're glad someone left. The team may have liked them.

Don't pitch the incumbent's replacement in the first message. You don't know yet whether the incumbent is in trouble.

And don't wait for the new leader to arrive. By then, the firms that were helpful during the gap have a head start.

For the related case of your own champion leaving, see your champion just left.

A leader leaving is a door opening. Walk through it early, and walk through it carefully.