Should CEOs have term limits?
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In some countries politicians have fixed term limits. What would happen if the same principle applied to CEOs? On average bosses in the UK stay for just under six years. But founder chief executives stay much longer. Evan Davis and guests discuss whether chief executives know when their time is up?
Guests:
Martin Gilbert, co-ceo, Aberdeen Standard Investments. Margaret Heffernan, author and entrepreneur Catherine Bright, a leadership consultant with Spencer Stuart.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:02.8 | In this edition of the bottom line, we're looking at how long a good chief executive should stay in post. |
| 0:10.5 | Hello, welcome to the programme. We gaze at President Putin, who's been running Russia for 18 years, |
| 0:15.8 | and I think I'm not mis-summarising the General Western Consensus if I say that many think |
| 0:20.6 | 18 years is far too long. |
| 0:23.2 | After all, US presidents are not allowed to serve after they've done two full four-year terms in office. |
| 0:29.0 | Margaret Thatcher had 11 years in power here, but most people thought that the last couple were not her finest. |
| 0:35.3 | So what we'll do today is not discuss politics, but business and leadership |
| 0:40.3 | and time in office. When should a chief executive stand down? Should we apply term limits to them? |
| 0:46.9 | Or is the danger that we're switching them around too quickly? Well, we all clearly get better at some |
| 0:53.2 | things, the more practice we have, but leadership |
| 0:56.0 | maybe it corrupts rather than improves over time. Let's meet my three guests, one of whom |
| 1:02.4 | has been a boss for 35 years, Martin Gilbert, co-CEO of Aberdeen Standard Investments, 35 years at |
| 1:10.7 | Aberdeen Asset Management, Martin, which merged |
| 1:13.5 | with Standard Life last year. Now, let's be honest, you've been 35 years at the top. A lot of |
| 1:19.5 | this programme is going to be devoted to whether that's a good idea or not. Before we get into |
| 1:24.4 | that, just tell us a bit about this being a co-chief executive. I cannot believe that that works. |
| 1:29.5 | It works surprisingly well. I think one of the things it does, if you're different, you can cover each other's weaknesses and hopefully concentrate on your strengths. |
| 1:39.7 | I think my weaknesses are lack of attention to detail, these sort of glaring weaknesses, |
| 1:46.6 | which have caught me out in the past. |
| 1:49.4 | People will have heard of Standard Life, may well have heard of Aberdeen Asset Management. |
| 1:53.2 | Just tell us what the company's focusing on now. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.