CEO turnover has reached historic levels, with chief executives departing at a pace not seen since tracking began. Yet most organizations have no tested pipeline ready to replace them. The succession crisis is not coming, it is already here.
There is a quiet crisis unfolding inside many organizations, and it looks nothing like a mass exodus — people are staying. This phenomenon, job hugging, is reshaping the talent landscape, and the cost is far steeper than it appears on any retention dashboard.
Flattening the org chart with AI looks efficient on a spreadsheet. In operationally intensive industries it is a high-risk strategy. The answer is not fewer managers but differently empowered ones.
One of the most dangerous assumptions in hiring is that a cautious employment market automatically makes strong talent easier to find.