The following companies have very little in common at first sight: DSM, ING, Wolters. They are all multinational corporations but operating in a diverse number of sectors: (Bio) Chemical industry (DSM), Finance (ING) and Business Publishing / Information providing (Wolters).

Yet there is something interesting about their CEO...

A closer look will reveal that they share an interesting feature in the area of change management. All current CEO's come from a company that was first taken over by the organization. Mckinstry from Wolters came from CCH later Wolters USA, Feike Sijbesma from DSM came from the company Gist Brocades and Michel Tilmant from ING came from BBL the Bank in Belgium that was taken over by ING.

All these three companies have been involved in some kind of a change. For ING and Wolters the change was very much concentrated on the organization of the business. The culture of Wolters changed to a more competitive and performance oriented organization, ING change to a more global blend. The change for DSM has been more oriented to the business. DSM was originally a company with a (high) fluctuating business that was sensitive to economic cycles, the company has refocused its business to bio based chemical production and is able to gain more constant (growing) profits.

In all three cases it was not only the current CEO that made the change possible, but its former position had to do with this change. The CEO of DSM had a background in biotechnology from the company Gist that was taken over. ING and Wolters have recruited there new CEO from a company that was taken over previously.

This is a pattern of a very well planned change. Business continuity is a main driver for organizations, but the business is continuously changing too. In choosing the CEO from a benchmark company or "benchmark" organization the company reaps a twofold advantage. Not only the business is continued, but the underlying organization will automatically change into the right direction.