CEOs Are Getting Fired for Ethical Lapses More Than They Used To

Companies have become much more likely to dismiss their chief executive officers over the last several years because of a scandal or improper conduct — including fraud, bribery, insider trading, inflated resumes, and sexual indiscretions. From 2007 to 2011, forced turnovers due to ethical lapses were 3.9% of all successions at the world’s 2,500 largest public companies. From 2012-2016, that figure rose to 5.3% — while that might sound small, it’s a 36 percent increase. Larger companies are more at risk than smaller ones, as are companies where the CEO has been in office for a long time, and companies where the CEO is also the board chair, according to PwC’s Strategy and recent CEO Success study.