The curse of a celebrity CEO: 2026 Edition

This Harvard Business Review (HBR) article appeared a decade ago, and this is the 2026 update. Current corporate executives live in a 24/7 limelight and compete fiercely with one another: Gates vs. Ellison vs. Musk vs. Bezos vs. Thiel. Corporate decisions are now being made on the run—at news conferences, on private jets, and at political rallies.

The steady, sedate world of corporate management has fallen prey to the celluloid world, and the red lights are flashing.

1. The current trend is that managing the narrative beats managing the business. In 2001, Jack Welch retired from GE as the most admired CEO in America. He was on magazine covers, in boardrooms, and featured in MBA case studies. Twenty years later, GE was broken into three pieces. In the 1980s, Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler from going bust and turned it around; before that, he had turned rival Ford Motor Co. into a PR platform. He was famous. Fame and performance used to be separate. Today, they are often in direct conflict. “The Original Curse” from the Harvard Business Review warned about this decades ago: when the CEO becomes bigger than the company, governance breaks.

2. The Board stops governing. Directors don’t challenge the ‘star’.

3. Metrics shift from cash flow and customers to stock price & headlines.

4. Time shifts: less time in factories, more in meetings.

Welch optimized GE for quarterly earnings beats. Iacocca optimised for press. Both got attention. Neither left durable companies.

The new curse: ‘The Algorithm CEO’

The old celebrity CEO needed a PR team and a magazine cover. The new one has 100 million followers and can move $10 billion with a post.

Three things make this worse in 2026:

1. No real Constraints. Dual class shares, founder control, and private capital means no board can say “no”. Corporate Law wasn’t written for CEOs who are the brand.

2. Decisions in public. Acquisitions, layoffs, product pivots, even feuds are announced at press conferences or from executive jets. The audience isn’t employees. It’s the feed.

3. Competition for attention. Tech pioneers aren’t just competing on product. They are competing to outdo each other in the news cycle. Bigger bet. Faster time line.

The risk: Billion dollar decisions get made for optics, not operations. Hype replaces discipline. When the hype fades, there is no business underneath.

The quiet alternative

While Some CEOs chase the spotlight, the biggest fortunes in the world avoid it. The industrial conglomerates, family and private groups that own ports, food, & banks. You don’t know the CEO’s name. The KPI isn’t the narrative. It’s EBITDA, Safety and 20-year contracts. They don’t announce mergers & acquisitions on stage. They close it in the boardroom. They don’t manage the narrative; they manage the business. The model isn’t new. This is how old money operates. Boring, private, profitable.

If your CEO is famous, ask three questions

1. The time test: Is more than 20 percent of the calendar spent on media customers & employees?

2. The decision test: The billion dollar investment calls — made for the media. Will they ever materialize?

3. The succession test: If the CEO left, tomorrow would the company still run?

If the answer is in the negative to any of them, the company doesn’t have a CEO. It has a spokesperson with signing-authority.

Pakistan. Small market. Ultra-sized egos. CEOs are using their companies to promote “self”. Boards are asleep. Conferences being held daily – 25 speakers a day. Do the regulators, in this case State Bank of Pakistan & Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, endorse what’s going on? Do they even bother to understand?

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026