Market Notes Market Intelligence, October 26, 2026
The C-Suite Pressure Map
Nearly 60% of CEOs plan to replace a senior leader within six months, and the CFO seat is named most often. What to define before anyone hears the news.
Where CEOs plan to make changes
The C-Suite Pressure Map
Nearly 60% of CEOs plan to replace a senior leader within six months. At the largest companies, 70%.
Survey of 645 CEOs at companies with $100 million or more in revenue. Source: Boston Consulting Group, CEO Insomnia Index, October 2026
Share of CEO responses naming each seat they plan to replace
Define the next role before anyone hears the news.
Screenshot or save this card for your next board or leadership conversation. Source details are below.
The Signal
Nearly 60% of CEOs say they plan to replace someone on their senior team within six months. That comes from Boston Consulting Group's latest CEO Insomnia Index, a survey of 645 CEOs at companies with at least $100 million in revenue, published October 14, 2026. Among the largest companies in the study, the number climbs to 70%.
The seat named most often is the CFO, at 16% of responses. The COO, CHRO and CMO followed at 12% each.
Stated intent is not a resignation letter. It does show where the pressure is landing: on the leaders who own the numbers, the operating model and the people agenda, at the same moment AI is rewriting how each of those jobs gets done.
It also means many CEOs and boards will be looking for the same profiles in the same window. The finance and HR executives who can turn strategy into an operating plan are already spoken for, and they are not scanning job boards.
What To Define Before Anyone Hears The News
- What the next version of the role must deliver in the next 24 months
- Which capabilities the current leader brings, and which the plan now requires
- Who inside the company could step in on an interim basis
- How the change will be explained to the board, the team and the market
Source: Boston Consulting Group, CEO Insomnia Index, October 14, 2026; reported by CFO Dive. Curated by Erin Merker, DHR Global.