In recent times, there has been quite a turnover of senior executives at gaming companies, notably the resignation of Jette Nygaard-Andersen as CEO of Entain; this forced the company to nominate Stella David, a non-executive director of the company, as acting CEO, while the company searched for a replacement. Search completed, Gavin Isaacs was hired in September 2024 as CEO. Once Isaacs was in place, the chair, Barry Gibb, stepped down and Stella David took over as the chair.
Fast forward a few months to February 2025 and Gavin Isaacs resigned “with immediate effect,” forcing Stella David to once again step in and take the CEO’s role.
Jette Nygaard-Andersen and Barry Gibb were elbowed out of the company, as they were seen as too dependent on opportunistic M&A to build the company, as opposed to having plans in place that would have allowed the company to digest its acquisitions and leverage its strengths to grow from its newly acquired companies.
The last straw for the CEO and chair was what was seen as vastly overpaying for a Polish betting company that had limited ability to produce meaningful revenue for Entain.
What surprises me is that some large companies always look outside for a CEO or other C-level executive, rather than having a plan for succession, training existing talent to be ready, and promoting from within when the time comes.
It is true that always promoting from within can lead to stagnation, while someone from the outside can bring new ideas and a fresh approach to the business. But it should not be the first call every time a new leader is required.
Not selecting someone from the ranks sends a message to the senior leadership that your career progression at the company has ended and you need to look elsewhere if you want to be promoted.
Companies require different strengths from the leadership team, depending on where the company is in its growth cycle, the aims of the business, and the business environment.
Rarely is a company’s success down to the one person at the top. Instead, it’s the combination of the skills, experience, and personalities of the team leading the company and their ability to work together in what can be unpredictable business conditions.
I was once told by a venture capitalist that being successful by riding the wave of a rapidly growing market is not an indication of good management. Rather, it is when the wave breaks that management is really tested.
Today’s world is fickle. Banking crises, pandemics, regulatory and political leadership changes, interest-rate fluctuations, functioning AI, etc. make running a business with growing profits a challenge, especially when markets demand growth quarter by quarter and pummel the share prices of companies that fail to achieve it.
To realise growth, companies need talent and they should manage the need for talent no different than the need for capital. The strategic plan will dictate what skills the company will need and when and where it will need them. Plans need to be put in place to develop and/or acquire the talent required if the company is to achieve its plan. It is no good having a plan, but not having the talent and skills needed to profitably implement it.
For example, as AI improves, companies need to look at what this means for the business and how best to incorporate it. Not to do so risks becoming the equivalent of a Nokia or Blackberry, leaders in their field that ignored the development of smartphones.
Clearly, the needs of the business will change with the implementation of an AI strategy and companies need to be well prepared for it. AI does not just mean that some people will be out of a job and everybody else will continue doing what they had been doing before. It means that certain people will not be doing certain tasks, but will have the time to focus on other equally or more important areas of the business.
Companies must be ready for this; they have to understand the changes and how they will affect the skills needed from the workforce. Flexible plans need to be developed so the company is ready for their implementation, regardless of the bumps along the road. I write flexible, because we do not know the future and what it will bring. We only record the past.
