In just the last year, CEOs at Walmart, Target and Disney have either announced their exits or begun actively planning handoffs, while Apple’s board is reportedly accelerating its own succession timeline.

It turns out, these are not isolated stories. They are the most visible examples of a pattern in which boards are replacing CEOs faster, often turning to first-timers homegrown inside the company, and putting unprecedented pressure on succession planning, leadership pipelines and the CHROs who steward them. READ MORE