When Spotify announced the successor to Daniel Ek would be Alex Norstrom and Gustav Söderström so two CEOs, not one, it got me thinking about something most leadership teams struggle with: the impossible tension between operational excellence today and innovation-led growth for tomorrow.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most CEOs are set up to fail at innovation!
Why? Because they’re simultaneously expected to:
- Deliver quarterly results and operational excellence
- Drive transformational innovation and long-term growth
- Maintain stability whilst embracing disruption
- Protect the core business whilst building the future
It’s like asking someone to sprint and run a marathon at the same time.
What if the co-CEO model solved this?
Imagine one CEO focused relentlessly on operational excellence—optimising today’s business, driving efficiency, delivering consistent results.
Whilst the other CEO owns innovation-led growth—building future capabilities, exploring new markets, creating tomorrow’s competitive advantage.
This isn’t just about splitting responsibilities. It’s about creating the conditions for both excellence AND innovation to thrive simultaneously.
Most organisations claim to prioritise innovation, yet their systems, metrics, and leadership incentives are designed entirely around operational performance. The co-CEO model could finally align structure with strategy.
But here’s the catch:
The median co-CEO arrangement lasts just 2.5 years. Why? Because it requires something most leadership teams lack: genuine psychological safety, radical transparency, and absolute alignment on strategic philosophy.
Without these foundations, you don’t get collaborative leadership—you get turf wars and innovation theatre.
For the co-CEO model to unlock innovation potential, organisations need:
✅ Clear strategic separation between operational excellence and innovation-led growth
✅ Distinct metrics and incentives for each domain
✅ Genuine partnership built on trust and complementary strengths
✅ Board-level commitment to this dual-operating system
The co-CEO trend might just be the structural innovation that finally allows organisations to stop choosing between today and tomorrow—and start winning at both.
Great The Wall Street Journal piece on this here: https://www.wsj.com/business/the-company-founders-who-think-they-need-not-one-but-two-successors-f2455464?mod=business_lead_pos2
What’s your take? Could this model be a game-changer for building genuine innovation-focused cultures?
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