In today’s brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible business environment, organizations face an unprecedented leadership crisis. CEOs are cycling through roles faster than ever, boards struggle to identify executives capable of navigating complexity and the traditional markers of leadership potential — technical expertise, functional excellence and strategic acumen — prove insufficient for the challenges ahead. What companies desperately need are leaders who combine deep self-awareness with collaborative instincts, can hold contradictions while driving toward decisions and understand that sustainable value creation requires attending to human dynamics as rigorously as financial metrics.
Such leaders are rare. But for more than two decades, one mid-sized specialty chemicals company produced them in remarkable numbers. When Dow Chemical completed its acquisition of Rohm and Haas Company (ROH) in 2009, executive search firm Egon Zehnder conducted comprehensive interviews with executives from both organizations and, 16 years later, that assessment has proven prophetic in ways that even seasoned executive search professionals could hardly have imagined. The number of executives who came from Rohm and Haas and became CEOs across the chemical and process industries is extraordinary and unprecedented.
The proof of investing in leadership development is performance. Although Rohm and Haas is not a household name, its track record speaks volumes. Founded in Philadelphia in 1909 by Dr. Otto Rohm and Mr. Otto Haas, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1948 and delivered 13.5% annual shareholder return from 1948 to 2009 — far exceeding broad market returns — until the sale of the company for $18.8 billion in cash. In its final decade, as leadership development efforts accelerated, ROH became the second-best performer among the S&P 500 from 1998 to 2009. At the time of sale, the company had $9 billion in sales, manufacturing sites in 35 countries and a workforce of 19,000.
The key drivers of this success were innovation, customer focus, a culture of always doing the right thing, and sustained investment in talent and leadership. This investment had two effects: It drove superior company performance over six decades and it created a multiplier effect as ROH-developed leaders carried these principles into organizations around the world.
The numbers tell a compelling story. From the ranks of what was essentially a mid-sized specialty chemicals company, 51 individuals have risen to become CEOs of corporations spanning public companies, private equity-backed firms and family-owned enterprises. These leaders have served or are serving as CEOs at 55 companies with headquarters across seven countries — 21 public companies and 34 private equity and private firms — representing a geographic and cultural diversity that defies the typical patterns of executive development.
Among these leaders are 22 Americans, 11 Indians (six of whom became U.S. citizens), and executives from across Europe, Latin America, Canada and Morocco. Perhaps most significantly, six women emerged from ROH’s leadership ranks at a time when female executive representation has remained minimal across the chemical industry.
The scope of their influence extends far beyond the CEO suite. Conservative estimates suggest that ROH alumni have served or are serving on more than 100 corporate boards, multiplying their impact across the business landscape. These leaders guide organizations ranging from Fortune 500 giants like Thermo Fisher, DuPont, Air Liquide, LyondellBasell, Tyco, Hewlett Packard, Delphi/Aptiv, Amerisource Bergen, Cummins and TE Connectivity to innovative start-ups. The breadth of industries represented demonstrates that ROH’s leadership development capability transcended the boundaries of its specialty chemicals origins.
What makes this phenomenon even more remarkable is its sustainability. Unlike other celebrated “CEO factories,” whose influence waned after leadership transitions or corporate upheavals, ROH’s leadership multiplication effect has accelerated since the company’s acquisition. Most of these CEO appointments occurred after 2009, suggesting that ROH’s leadership development created a generational impact that continues to unfold across the business world.
The foundation of ROH’s success resides in a systematic leadership development architecture that began taking shape in the late 1980s. Recognizing that their diverse portfolio of businesses required leaders capable of independent action with minimal oversight, ROH’s chief human resources officer, Mark Feck, partnered with consulting psychologist Karol M. Wasylyshyn to create what would become one of corporate America’s most comprehensive executive development programs. Over more than two decades, 70 to 80 executives from around the world participated in this intensive development process known as Leadership 2000 and, later, Leadership 3000.
Two elements distinguished this program from typical corporate leadership development. First, it had both the imprimatur and active participation of the CEO — first Larry Wilson and then Raj Gupta. In addition to Feck, this work was supported by senior ROH HR leaders, including Marisa Guerin and Joe Forish. Central to this success was ROH’s culture of teamwork on the management committee, which included an HR function focused on enterprise capability rather than purely administrative concerns. Equally important was a significant infrastructure of sustained, HR-managed and executive-led leadership reviews across the entire company, which operated in partnership with the CEO to support the pipeline to Leadership 2000 and 3000. When executives were invited to participate, they knew the CEO or other C-level leaders would be actively engaged in their action planning and follow-up sessions. This visible commitment from the top signaled that leadership development was a core business priority.
Second, the program represented a deep integration of sound management practices and psychological insights about human behavior. At its core, participants were focused on integrating the “what” (objectives, responsibilities, leadership competencies) with the “how” (leadership behavior). This emphasis on leadership behavior — not just results — proved to be a key factor in the strength of ROH leaders’ soft skills that executive recruiters still recognize decades later.
The Leadership 2000 and 3000 model consisted of six phases, each designed to build on the others in creating self-aware, psychologically grounded and commercially strong leaders.
Multifaceted data gathering formed the foundation. This included 360-degree feedback, psychometric testing and a comprehensive life history from birth. The developmental history drew on Erik Erikson’s eight-stage theory of psychosocial tasks, examining capacity for forming trusting relationships, acting independently as well as collaboratively, taking initiative and demonstrating decisiveness, recognition and ability to use one’s cognitive strengths fully, clarity of identity, capacity for intimacy in non-transactional relationships, generativity and willingness to share wisdom, and feelings of life and career satisfaction versus unrequitedness.
Optional elements enriched the assessment. A spousal module offered a holistic commitment to work with the whole person, examining and providing guidance on work-family balance issues. The Rorschach, a projective testing tool, gave participants deeper awareness and understanding of their leadership behavior and preferences. The projective hypothesis holds that when shown an ambiguous stimulus like an inkblot, what people say they see is informed by deeper aspects of personality, revealing possible concerns about authority, competitive dynamics and fears about expressing emotion that other assessment tools might miss.
Synthesized feedback connected the dots across all data sources. Rather than the typical “data dump” where information is presented without integration, the external consultant carefully synthesized findings to help participants understand how their developmental history, personality characteristics and current behaviors interconnected. This created meaningful insights rather than disconnected observations.
Comprehensive action planning brought together the participant’s “brain trust” — the CEO, the chief human resources officer, the participant’s direct boss and Wasylyshyn, who facilitated every meeting. The goal was a specific action plan informed by the knowledge and experiences of senior leaders who could speak to both organizational needs and developmental opportunities. Participants could not fake engagement. They were drawn into meaningful action-oriented conversations about their development areas and had to be intentional about their growth and how they could leverage the experiences of the C-level executives participating in these meetings.
Ongoing coaching provided an “open ceiling” process. Participants could continue with coaching based on their action plan and then shift into leadership consultation. They learned the value and power of self-awareness and deeper insights about their leadership behavior. They needed “lab time” to practice their evolved leader behaviors. And they wanted to include the discipline of psychology in the mix with all the other fundamental business disciplines, such as finance, marketing, information technology, and research and development (R&D).
Focused follow-up occurred six months after action planning, when the external consultant facilitated another meeting with the participant’s brain trust to review progress and provide further development input. This accountability mechanism ensured that development commitments translated into behavioral change and leadership growth as warranted.
The overarching dynamic across all phases was the “conveyance of wisdom” — both a managerial and psychological principle. The intent was for participants to feel they could walk in the shoes of the leaders who went before them. Conversations were explicit about handling people-oriented managerial issues, whether hiring, succession or performance management. Senior leaders shared how they navigated customer relationships in ways that produced competitive results. They emphasized collaborative teamwork, i.e. how to advance their leadership effectiveness by integrating across all disciplines.
The Leadership 2000 and 3000 work lasted for 20 years, an extraordinary duration for any corporate program. Two factors enabled this sustainability: continuity and consistency.
The work was based on the same leadership competencies and essential behaviors framework throughout its duration (see sidebar). Unlike many organizations where new HR leadership often triggers competency redesigns, ROH maintained the same set and it became deeply ingrained in the culture. These competencies and essential leadership behaviors got “embedded” in the thinking of participants in a way that informed talent decisions, including hiring, succession planning and performance feedback.
This organizational commitment can be described as “vigilance” — not vigilance against threats, but intentional, positive vigilance about building and nurturing a population of senior leaders fully ready to deal with marketplace challenges and help accelerate the growth of the company.
The optional spousal module represented one of the program’s most innovative — and underutilized — elements. Only about 15% of participants chose to include their spouses, though those who did reported significant benefits. Spouses were stunned and grateful that the company cared enough to support them, and the module opened avenues for richer conversations between leaders and spouses about the demands of executive roles and how those demands impacted their personal lives.
Even participants who didn’t choose the spousal module received attention to the work-family balance. This holistic orientation to participants recognized that if something was going on in their personal space that was a distraction or interfered with their focus on work, it needed to be addressed as supportively as possible. This extended to diet, sleep and exercise, ensuring leaders were making healthy choices that helped them withstand the relentless demands of their roles.
This commitment to the whole person manifested in concrete ways. When one executive’s father died suddenly while he was leading a major business unit, the company offered to move him to Paris to head European operations while continuing his global responsibilities — with time off to address family needs. The conversation led to his staying with the company, eventually advancing to senior leadership. Such responses demonstrated that getting to know people deeply, understanding their personal challenges, and collaborating on well-focused actions was key for both individuals and the organization.
Sixteen years after Rohm and Haas was acquired by Dow, ROH alumni still stand out during executive search processes, indicating the strong ROH talent brand in the industry. This recognition stems from the image, maturity, holistic leadership and customer focus that clients associate with ROH alumni.
In many executive assessments conducted between 2008 and 2015, ROH executives consistently scored higher on soft skills: self-awareness, curiosity, determination, engagement and insight. On leadership competencies like collaboration and team leadership, they stood out. Leaders who can be vulnerable and who are also transparent in their communication are among the best leaders, and this requires deep self-awareness.
Such self-awareness came from the top through mentorship and honest feedback. The culture conveyed a clear message: You made a mistake, you are accountable, but you need to grow. Here is your safety net, and we will help you develop a certain mindset and certain behaviors. This instilled the awareness that “I might not be ready, but I can be ready.”
A recent survey of ROH alumni who became CEOs — with a 60% response rate — revealed consistent themes about what made their ROH experience distinctive.
Balancing short-term pressures with long-term value creation. Alumni consistently cited learning to resist the tyranny of quarterly thinking while still delivering results. The compensation structure reinforced this: 75% of long-term incentives were based on overall corporate performance rather than individual business unit results, encouraging leaders to think beyond their immediate responsibilities.
Navigating complex leadership challenges early. Alumni pointed to pivotal experiences where they had to step up and lead through major challenges, such as plant shutdowns, international expansions and turnaround situations. These experiences, coupled with coaching support, built capabilities that served them throughout their careers.
Developing a global mindset and cross-functional expertise. The company systematically rotated high-potential executives through geographic assignments and diverse business units. Leaders gained experience across ROH’s portfolio, moving beyond their original functional expertise to develop broad business acumen. Full profit-and-loss and balance sheet responsibility at regional and global levels gave future leaders authentic experience in managing complex business challenges.
Enterprise-wide thinking from early career stages. Even when running a $5 million business for the first time, leaders were held to the same standards as senior executives — thinking about the plant, the cost and the customer. It was never an option to optimize only one function like sales. This enterprise-wide thinking from early career stages is something recruiters see very little of elsewhere, yet it makes an enormous difference in CEO readiness.
The structural elements of ROH’s leadership development rested on a cultural foundation that shaped every aspect of organizational life. The company operated according to what executives called the “One Fit All” philosophy, with an unwavering commitment to “always doing the right thing.” The clearly articulated code of conduct applied equally to all employees regardless of position. Violations were addressed consistently, creating a culture where ethical behavior was nonnegotiable.
Equal opportunity was a lived reality. The performance-based advancement system operated independently of demographic characteristics, creating genuine meritocracy that enabled talent to emerge from unexpected places. Leaders from India, Europe, Latin America and other regions advanced to senior positions based purely on capabilities and contributions.
ROH’s outside-in perspective distinguished it from companies that became insular or complacent. The organization systematically scanned its external environment, maintaining what leaders described as “healthy paranoia” about competitive threats and market changes. This vigilance translated into a culture of continuous adaptation that prepared leaders for uncertainties throughout their careers.
Perhaps most unusually, ROH encouraged learning from failures rather than punishing them. The company conducted systematic failure analysis to extract lessons while protecting individuals who took intelligent risks that did not succeed. This created psychological safety for the kind of bold action that leadership roles require.
The sustainability of ROH’s impact reveals perhaps its most significant achievement: the creation of a multigenerational leadership multiplication effect. The first generation of leaders who participated directly in Leadership 2000 and 3000 went on to develop second-generation leaders in their new organizations. These second-generation leaders, in turn, are now developing third-generation executives using principles and practices they learned from ROH alumni.
Of the 51 executives who became CEOs, perhaps 20 worked directly with the leadership development program. But the approach became institutionalized. Philosophically, what was important and worked got incorporated into how subsequent generations developed their colleagues. The cultural DNA replicated itself through the conveyance of wisdom from one leadership generation to the next.
Evidence of this cultural transmission appears throughout alumni correspondence and conversations. Executives consistently report implementing ROH practices in their new organizations, from performance management systems to cultural values. Many describe their ROH experience as transformational, providing leadership principles that guided their entire careers.
For contemporary organizations seeking to develop exceptional leaders, what elements of ROH’s approach are nonnegotiable and what can be adapted to modern contexts?
Contemporary leadership thinkers confirm the enduring relevance of this approach. Dr. Carol Kauffman of Harvard, author of Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High, argues today’s leaders must combine strategic clarity with psychological insight — tolerating ambiguity, managing their own anxiety and creating space for experimentation rather than relying on fixed playbooks. The ROH model anticipated these requirements decades ago, recognizing that inner work — self-awareness, emotional regulation and humility — forms the foundation of effective leadership. What was innovative in the 1980s has become essential today.
The nonnegotiable element is CEO imprimatur and participation. The CEO or senior leadership team members must be actively engaged in the development process — not merely approving budgets, but participating in action planning sessions and follow-up conversations. This signals that leadership development is a business priority and creates the conditions for authentic conveyance of wisdom.
Equally essential is a consistent set of leadership competencies and essential behaviors maintained over time. Organizations that redesign competency frameworks with each new HR leader undermine the deep embedding that makes such frameworks useful for hiring, feedback and succession planning.
The holistic orientation — attending to the whole person, including work-family dynamics — remains relevant even as it challenges organizational boundaries. The underlying principle of addressing whatever interferes with a leader’s focus and effectiveness remains sound, even if the specific mechanisms must be adapted to contemporary contexts.
What can be adapted is the specific delivery mechanism. In today’s faster-paced, more distributed environment, the intensive, in-person development model may need modification. But the core elements (psychological depth, confidentiality, integration of data sources, senior leader involvement and accountability through follow-up) can be preserved even as formats evolve.
The ROH legacy offers compelling evidence that systematic, psychologically informed leadership development can create remarkable organizational impact regardless of company size or industry profile. By focusing on developing self-aware, globally minded, values-driven executives, and by maintaining that focus with vigilance over two decades, ROH created a leadership multiplication effect that continues to influence business organizations worldwide.
The most profound lesson may be that exceptional leadership development requires authentic commitment to human potential. When organizations invest genuinely in understanding their people — their developmental histories, their fears and aspirations, and their family dynamics — and when they create cultures that enable authentic growth through the conveyance of wisdom from one generation to the next, they can achieve tremendous transformation.
The guiding philosophy was to help leaders “lead from the inside out.” In an era when leadership capability has become perhaps the most critical determinant of organizational success, the ROH model offers a proven pathway for creating the leaders that tomorrow’s challenges will demand. The Leadership 2000 and 3000 programs demonstrated that when organizations commit to psychologically informed, CEO-supported development over the long term, they create a multiplier effect, producing not just individual leaders, but generations of executives who carry these principles forward, accelerating company growth and transforming organizations beyond the original company’s boundaries.
| The ROH Leadership Framework The Leadership 2000 and 3000 programs were built on a consistent set of competencies and essential behaviors that remained unchanged for 20 years, becoming deeply embedded in ROH’s culture and informing every aspect of talent management from hiring to succession planning. LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES Outside-in Perspective – Market-aware and customer-Driven. Understanding external market dynamics and placing customer needs at the center of decision-making. – Strategic focus. Maintaining clarity on long-term objectives while navigating short-term pressures. – Global perspective. Operating effectively across geographic and cultural boundaries. Speed to Market – Bias for action. Moving decisively from analysis to execution. – Adaptive to change. Responding flexibly to shifting circumstances and emerging opportunities. – Creative problem-solving. Developing innovative solutions to complex challenges. Pursuit of Profitable Growth – Professional credibility. Building trust through expertise and consistent delivery. – Business acumen. Understanding the financial and operational drivers of business performance. – Persuasion and influence. Gaining commitment from others without relying on formal authority. – Safety performance. Prioritizing the well-being of employees and communities. – People and performance management. Developing talent and driving results through others. – Interpersonal effectiveness. Building productive relationships across all levels and functions. ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS |
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