The firing of Nestlé’s CEO and the new rules of office romance

Last week, Nestle, a $ 244 billion diet behind some of the world’s most sweets and coffee brands, announced that the CEO of Laurent Freixe, was rejected due to its violation of the company’s rules after one year in the job.
The company said that the investigation had confirmed reports that it had an inappropriate relationship with a direct report. Nestle, a backward category, has already slipped the price of his share, has already installed the new CEO, Philip Navratil, an internal rental that previously led the company Nespresso. The sub -text of the press statement was clear: Nothing could be seen here.
Despite the lack of qiblah cameras and the superstructures, the story continued to attract the attention of people, which prompted talks on moral differences in parallel office romance, changing the criteria for how they deal with companies, and the criteria of the personal behavior that is kept.
Here are some fast food from the CEO of Nestlé:
The consequences of incorrect romance can be severe
The panels have less tolerance now with the CEO’s misconduct, such as office romances, compared to 20 or 30 years, and generally move quickly to replace leaders formed. The exits that follow a scandal like this can be much more punitive than it was when leaders are removed for performance issues, often “golden umbrellas”. As my colleague Eva Rewterberg said, Frex Nestle left without any payment package.
The transformation towards the partial implementation in part is due to concerns about the company’s perceptions. “The audit is both internal and external,” said Shalouitzer, adding that it exceeds the shareholders. “They are paintings, they are their peers in C Suite, they are one people under the C.
Satan in the details of the disclosure
Nestlé newspapers statement said that the previous CEO was rejected not only because of a relationship, but because of its existence Unveiled relationship. (It was reported that Freixe was investigated twice and forbidden the case during the first investigation.)
Was it safe if it was clean?
Perhaps not, as an executive president. Most companies have a policy that bears zero for executives whose history is dated because regardless of their location on the Org scheme, the imbalance in strength is very large so that there are no questions about decision -making and the ethics of the CEO. “I mean, the human resources and the council will have to go through some serious mitigation to reduce favoritism, revenge or harassment.”.
However, the work has always been a common place for people to meet (even if it is no longer the starting point for one out of every five relationships, as it was in the last part of the last century). For executives who are not senior executives, the relationship detection sometimes can address the problem, as well as reorganization so that no Lovestruck employee does not report to the other.
It is known that the councils appear in the past the misconduct by high performance
Although Star executives have been dropped by affairs, it is also correct that when the CEO is not at the level of expectations, the Board of Directors may find a way to send executive mobilization using the company’s policy for coverage, says Schloetzer. Before becoming an academic, the professor says luckHe realized that “it is not unusual for companies to do things to get a conclusion that they are looking for.”
“For example, I can suddenly decide to check expense reports only to ensure that everyone’s expenses reports follow the company’s practices,” he says. “And here, this person was not following the company’s practices. Now I have a reason to get rid of them.”
Cabrina Zhang, a legal professor of business and ethics at the Coesrum College of Business at the University of Boston, adding that on the other hand, companies have a way to deliberately ignore bad behavior when it comes to rain makers.
But complaints submitted by employees about the leader’s behavior can sometimes force work. “While one of the virtual board members may turn a blind eye to a virtual party,” she says, the employees do not have the same incentive to do so.
If your wife is used to inform you, you may not be the CEO
The Nestlé Council ignores important details about Freixe when it was first nominated for the corner office, says Guido Palazzo, Professor of Labor Ethics at Lausanne University and co -author of Dark style: hidden dynamics for corporate scandals: According to reports, the CEO married a woman who met in Nestle; The husband revealed the relationship, then left the company.
Nestle’s painting is likely to be familiar with that background, and to use it anyway. Send a mixed message. “The CEO should never become if this behavior is not acceptable in Nestle,” says Palazo. “Instead, he was tolerated, and he continued to be promoted.”
2025-09-07 10:00:00