Cleared for Takeoff: CEO Attributes and the Successful Exit from Corporate Bankruptcy

Corporate bankruptcy, and particularly the role of executive leadership in this process, remains an underexplored area of study. We identify chief executive officer (CEO) attributes that facilitate a successful exit from corporate bankruptcy. We adopt an exploratory qualitative approach based on interviews with CEOs of firms that successfully and unsuccessfully emerged from bankruptcy, as well as with other bankruptcy actors. We discuss the constraints that CEOs face during the bankruptcy process (e.g., resource constraints and substantial time pressures). Then, we explain how the CEO attributes—cognitive flexibility, other industry experience, extensive professional networks, people-assessing skills, persuasiveness, and negotiating effectiveness—support the formulation and execution of “outside-the-box” strategic initiatives that facilitate a successful exit. We suggest that the six attributes form a “configuration” centered on cognitive flexibility, that is, the other five attributes depend on the CEOs' cognitive flexibility to overcome the resource constraints and time pressures that characterize the bankruptcy process.