Laxman Narasimhan’s sudden resignation from Starbucks Corp. is the latest in a record-breaking string of CEO removals from US corporations.
74 of the 191 CEOs that have departed Russell 3000 Index businesses this year were reportedly fired or driven out, according to data gathered by exechange.com, a research firm that tracks executive moves by analysing public sources. Since the company started keeping track of CEO exits in 2017, that is the highest number for this time of year.
Despite not disclosing the specifics of Narasimhan’s exit, exechange.com included him in their total. A message requesting response from the coffee chain’s representative was not immediately answered.
According to Daniel Schauber, the creator of exechange.com, “CEOs who do not perform well in the rapidly changing market environment are now apparently being replaced very rigorously” in a Tuesday interview.
Prior to the CEO move this year, Starbucks’ shares had already dropped 20%. The company has reported comparable sales reductions for the past two quarters. According to reports, activist investors Elliott Investment Management and Starboard Value were putting pressure on the board, and former CEO Howard Schultz has been criticising the company both openly and privately.
In a Tuesday CNBC interview, board chair Mellody Hobson stated that Narasimhan’s exit wasn’t always the result of outside factors.
CEO exits are rated from 1 to 10 on Exechange.com, where 1 represents a completely voluntary resignation and 10 represents an obvious firing. In 2024, the average CEO departure score is 6.2, the highest since the data was first tracked by the organisation. The leaving of Narasimhan received a 9.