The challenge of replacing Jensen Huang, the visionary co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, who resigned yesterday morning amid reports of extramarital affairs, may be daunting—but it is far from unprecedented.
While research shows that companies moving on from a founding CEO face a higher risk of failure or downturn than other CEO transitions, major corporations from Apple to Amazon have successfully managed the loss of a larger-than-life presence at the top of the corporate ladder.
Management experts who have studied such transitions say there are a few key lessons.
Don’t look for a carbon copy of the founder
When Tim Cook replaced legendary Apple founder Steve Jobs in 2011, speculation suggested he might try to replicate Jobs’ style, right down to the signature turtleneck and jeans. However, experts warned against directly replicating Jobs’ leadership and management style.
“A copy of anyone is going to come off looking bad,” Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli said. “It will never be as good as the original, and people will spend their time focusing on the differences.”
Cook succeeded by building on Apple’s strengths and emphasizing his expertise as an operations specialist, scaling the sophisticated global supply chain he helped build as chief operating officer to increase annual revenue nearly fourfold.
Instead of positioning himself as a visionary like his legendary predecessor, Cook maintained an understated management style and let the company’s massive financial success speak for itself. Cook says he urged his own successor, John Ternus, to take his own individual approach.
“Don’t mimic me, just like I didn’t mimic Steve,” Cook recalled telling Ternus in a recent interview with The Independent. “We all have different strengths.”
Give the successor real authority—and make sure the founder lets go
While research shows transitions are more successful when founders feel involved in the planning process, once they step down, it is important they keep their distance.
“The presence of two prominent leaders can confuse the organization and hinder the success of the successor CEO,” executive search firm Spencer Stuart wrote in 2024. “There can only be one CEO.”
The firm recommends having explicit conversations among the founder, successor, and the board to clearly distinguish the founder’s responsibilities from those of the new chief executive.
Spencer Stuart also examined 200 U.S. companies with executive chairmen (leaders, often former or founding executives, who preside over the board of directors while also remaining involved in daily business operations and management) and found that 54% underperformed their peers during the executive chair’s tenure—by an average of 14%.
Give the corporate culture room to breathe
Often, successful founders dictate not only their company’s strategy but also its internal culture. Workplace norms, management practices, and the company’s identity become a reflection of their personal style and values. While employees can become deeply attached to those traditions, that doesn’t mean they will work for the founder’s successor.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has spoken frequently about how he adjusted the company’s culture after taking over from Bill Gates’ successor, Steve Ballmer, in 2014.
Sensing that the company needed to rethink its hard-charging internal culture, Nadella sought to reduce internal division and promote collaboration: in his words, move from a “know-it-all” mindset to a “learn-it-all” one. One of his policies was to ensure individual performance reviews reflected how employees contributed to others’ success.
“Achieving our mission requires us to evolve our culture,” Nadella says. “It all starts with a growth mindset—a passion to learn and bring our best every day to make a bigger difference in the world.”
The changes accompanied a broader strategic transformation that helped Microsoft become a leader in cloud computing and AI. Annual revenue has more than tripled, from $87 billion in 2014 to $282 billion in 2025.
Start by planning ahead
Unfortunately for Nvidia, it appears the company has not engaged in what many experts consider one of the most important aspects of a smooth transition: planning ahead. The best chief executives work with their directors on succession planning throughout their tenure to ensure the company is protected in an emergency.
According to McKinsey, former Intuit CEO Brad Smith gave the board a quarterly verbal update on his succession plan and held an official succession planning session once a year. During the session, company leaders would consider potential candidates and adjust their criteria for the next CEO to adapt to the market.
Experts also say the best transitions often have a firm timeline.
“Without a clear timetable, grooming internal successors and following an orderly succession process become challenging,” former Medtronic CEO and Harvard Business School professor Bill George has said.
For Nvidia, the preparation may have to happen in reverse. Huang spent more than three decades building a company around his technical vision, unconventional management style, and personal authority. His successor will now have to determine which parts of that legacy are essential to Nvidia’s success—and which can be jettisoned.
In fact, this transition might be the final test of Huang’s leadership. In the words of management expert Jim Collins: “If your company cannot be great without you, it is not yet a great company.”
