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04Precedent · how it went for them

The situation“The project is slipping and I can't see where.”

Leaders who made the same call — what each did, and how it went.

WorkedShouldn’t have been tried

Worked · Karen Lynch, CVS Health, 2021 onwards

Karen Lynch became CEO of CVS Health in February 2021 — the highest-ranked female CEO in the Fortune 500 at the time — inheriting a Fortune 10 company three years into the integration of the $70 billion Aetna acquisition and in the middle of the COVID vaccine rollout.

Worked · Kathleen Barrett, Backlight, 2024 onwards

Kathleen Barrett took over as chief executive of Backlight — parent company of Iconik, Wildmoka, and ftrack — in 2024.

Shouldn’t have been tried · Boeing, 737 MAX, 2010s

In the years leading up to the two fatal crashes of the 737 MAX, Boeing reorganised its engineering reporting structure so that engineers reported to business unit heads rather than to chief project engineers.