Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was compelled to resign after just ten days. Eich, who had been with the company for years, stepped down on April 3 amidst a growing controversy regarding political donations he made in support of California's Prop 8. While his initial hiring was announced with optimism and excitement by the software giant, a firestorm of negative press soon followed, leading to his dismissal.
On paper, the erstwhile executive was a perfect choice to head up Mozilla. Eich was one of the open-source software company's co-founders and had served in the role of Chief Technology Officer. He was instrumental in the development and release of Mozilla's flagship product, the Firefox browser. He was and is a capable and talented software engineer, one who had all the "hard skills" needed to flourish in the role.
And yet, his time as CEO was shorter than this year's Winter Olympics. What went wrong?
It's possible that Mozilla lacked the context and perspective to properly evaluate how an outsider would view Eich as a CEO. The company had a clear vision of his myriad technological accomplishments, but perhaps failed to entirely consider the full picture — and, importantly, how that picture would come across to the public.
This is the sort of situation in which a retained executive search firm would thrive. In many ways, these consultants have the best of both worlds: They can dedicate the time and attention it takes to fully understand your business, while at the same time retaining the perspective necessary to understand how a particular hire might play out with the public.
For its part, Mozilla has been more cautious with its latest promotion. In a blog post, the company announced that it was promoting Chris Beard, a long-time member of the Board of Directors, to the role of CEO — but only on an interim basis:
"We intend to use recent events as a catalyst to develop and expand Mozilla's leadership. Appointing Chris as our interim CEO is a first step in this process. Next steps include a long-term plan for the CEO role, adding board members who can help Mozilla succeed and continuing our efforts to actively support each Mozillian to reach his or her full potential as a leader," explained Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker.
While it remains to be seen who will fill the CEO role on a permanent basis, one thing seems abundantly clear: The organization will need to scrutinize the candidate thoroughly.
