It could be getting scary again to be at the top.
Just ask Rick Belluzzo at Microsoft Corp. and Richard Lane at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. Or how about Barry Schuler at AOL Time Warner Inc.?
Better act fast. Two of those managers are on their way out the door, and the third recently found himself reorganized in a new job. Fifty-one chief executives left their posts in March, according to the Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc.
Such high-profile shifts in power underscore the job insecurity many business leaders experience at this time of year, when firms lay out their financial performance for all the world to see -- and when executives can find themselves out of work with the flick of a balance sheet.
"It's like there's a score card now that's so public every year," said John A. Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray. "Every decision is second-guessed, scrutinized. There's just not much leeway to be wrong very often."
And so people such as Lane, former president of Bristol-Myers' worldwide medicines group, get shown the door when corporate earnings don't meet Wall Street expectations. Belluzzo, Microsoft's president and chief operating officer, recently said he will step down in May after losing a power struggle with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, two Microsofties higher up on the food chain.
For his part, Schuler, chief executive of America Online, AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Internet unit, whose lagging growth has disappointed industry analysts, will remain with the firm but play a different role, heading up a unit that will develop digital products.
Neil Stroul, a psychologist and career coach in Northern Virginia, has noticed that some of his clients feel they can't control the momentum of the economy, especially since Sept. 11. They don't doubt their own competence so much as how the market will react to them if they lose their jobs, he said.
"In some industries, the job market is so bad that I think there is that kind of anxiety" in finding new work, said Stroul, of Management and Training Innovations Inc. in McLean.
Actually, executive departures have been on the decline through the economic slowdown, said Philip D. Simshauser, president of the Center for Executive Options, a New York firm that provides career advice for top managers. He attributed the dip to fewer mergers and acquisitions and the different ways executive performance is measured during a tough stretch.
