24/7 Wall St. CEOs Who Need to be Fired: Nine for 2010

Public companies dismiss CEOs all the time. The firings can be due to incompetence, malfeasance, or tensions with boards of directors or founders. 24/7 Wall St. has chosen nine sitting CEOs who should be let go by their boards. All the CEOs are on this list for simple reasons. The first is that many have presided over ethical or legal lapses. This is certainly an issue at Goldman Sachs GS, Dell DELL, and Moody’s MCO. It is easy for observers to say that the chief executive of a large firm cannot be responsible for every action of every employee. But when the trouble is repeated and widespread, it is senior management that must be blamed for refusing to set a strong moral tone. Some candidates are on this list is because they have made strategic decisions that have cost their companies dearly. Sprint-Nextel S has decided to adopt a 4G format that is different from the one that AT&T T and Verizon Wireless VZ will use. In coming to the market first, it hopes to steal subscribers from its two larger rivals. Unfortunately for Sprint, both AT&T and Verizon have very strong products and competitive pricing to keep their customers where they are. Sprint probably painted itself into a box – a box in which its technology is unsustainably in the minority. The last reason that a CEO may have been chosen is a simple one: the exceedingly poor management of a large and previously highly successful business. The best example of this is Boeing. It has been one of the world’s premier manufacturing companies. The failure to deliver its flagship product on time has hurt the firm, as it has repeatedly put off the launch of the 787 Dreamliner. What follows is a list of the CEOs and the case against them remaining in their current positions. Each of these companies would be much better off with a new leader – customers, shareholders, and employees should expect that they will get them. 1. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT * CEO: Michael Duke * When He Started: February, 2009 Michael Duke became CEO of Wal-Mart on February 1, 2009. Since then, the company’s stock is up 5%. The shares of archrivals Target TGT and Costco COST, are up 65% and 22% respectively. To read the rest, head over to 247WallStreet.com