Dive Brief:
- Nestle and PepsiCo must choose new leadership within the next few years, and battles are brewing for control of both companies.
- At Nestle, the world's largest food company, two seasoned insiders are competing for the top job when CEO Paul Bulcke leaves, perhaps in 2017.
- Meanwhile, PepsiCo has promoted a number of key executives after the departure of some top leaders left a clear vacuum should CEO Indra Nooyi retire.
Dive Insight:
It can be fun to watch a succession battle from the outside. It's quite different for the folks inside a company, who must survive the in-fighting.
And in these two cases, the tensions are likely running very, very high. The two CEO slots in contention are arguably the best jobs in the entire corporate world. Billions of dollars in market value are on the line, ensuring that Wall Street, activist shareholders, and anyone else with money in the game has an opinion on the matter.
At both companies, insiders clearly have the fast track. But anything can happen in a succession fight.
