“Having to get up that learning curve while you’re in the middle of a street fight, which is what a turnaround feels like … that learning curve is too steep,” Hesters said. “That’s the reason you see a lot of those outside the industry CEOs maybe not be successful. … If you get too far afield, the curve may be too steep for success.”Laxman Narasimhan, for example, had no restaurant experience when he became CEO at Starbucks in 2023 , after working at consumer health company Reckitt Benckiser Group. He laste ...