Check out also The Atlantic’s article asking whether CEO’s matter (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/steve-jobs). Their conclusion is that CEOs only make a difference in industries where CEOs can be “unconstrained”. (Read: innovative, flexible, desperately afraid of bankruptcy and naively optimistic about their growth potential. In other words, competitive.) At the other extreme are industries where CEOs are nothing more than “titular figureheads”, in which case leadership changes have virtually know impact on company performance. Electric utilities are given as a prime example of the latter. As a utility colleague once told me (on deep background), “the core competence of an electric utility is not making electricity. It is managing their regulator.”

Put another way, if you worked for a company with a titular figurehead who specialized in regulator management, would you feel especially innovative? : )