How CEOs Can Sustain Success And Build A Legacy

After 37 years at Northwestern Mutual—including 14 years as its chairman, president and CEO—I am retiring. I love this organization, everything it stands for, and all that it’s accomplished over the past decade-and-a-half on behalf of the five million clients we proudly serve. Northwestern Mutual’s mission is to help Americans build financial security—and we’ve lived up to it. Our company expanded our client base by 28 percent and team of financial advisors by 26 percent,  enabling our organization to generate “real growth” and truly thrive. Our revenue climbed from approximately $21 billion to over $36 billion, and the past several years have been the most productive in the company’s 167-year history.

A 14-year tenure is not the norm—in fact, it’s twice as long as the typical Fortune 500 CEO. So, not surprisingly, I’m often asked by emerging leaders, “How were you able to remain the head of a significant and influential company for so long?” As I’ve contemplated that question, there were certainly things I did that enabled me to sustain success. I humbly share these six key truths to help the next generation of leaders create a legacy that lasts and build a dynasty of their own.

Create a bold vision. That vision should be grounded in a noble mission, business intelligence and smart strategy. I encourage every CEO, and every aspiring leader, to become an anthropologist, sociologist and student of your company. Know why you are in business. Understand your core competency and the technical aspects of every part of your enterprise. Get familiar with every division, how each fits and drives the company’s value proposition. I’m an organizational analyst by trade–and I can’t underscore enough how important that skillset was in my early days. Instead of evaluating other organizations for their growth potential, I spent years assessing our company’s comprehensive set of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. This intentional deep dive was essential for me to speak decisively with our board of trustees and develop a bold view of the future.

Build excitement for that vision every day. Some leaders believe that entire organizations will fall in love and fall in line with the new chief executive’s beliefs. The truth is that there will be skeptics and people at all levels of the organization sitting on the fence. Leaders have to work hard to bring people with them every single day. Leadership is an action, not a noun. One can’t just demonstrate managerial skills, you have to articulate, “here’s where I want to go” and inspire people to believe in it.

Constantly upgrade your talent. It’s easy for C-suite leaders to get comfortable with the talented people you’ve always worked with. Resist—and always keep upgrading at every position—particularly the specialized positions. I always looked for high performers, but I also prioritized people who wanted to change things for the better. If I had two leaders to choose from—one who could keep the trains running on time and one who could also transform aspects of the operation—I’d pick the latter every time.

Develop a second and third act. Long-term CEOs are never one-trick ponies. After I had served as CEO for several years, I spoke with several CEOs of large companies, and they all said the same thing: “You need a second act.” As the leader of an organization, you must come up with something new that energizes you, inspires the team, and outpaces the outside disruptors who aim to take every hill before you do. Continue assessing the organization, analyzing its present state, imagining its ideal future, contemplating the disruptors that could stop you from delivering a dynasty, and taking calculated risks that are in the long-term best interest of the company.

Establish belief in an “intergenerational compact.” Sustained success requires a cultural belief in something we at Northwestern Mutual call our “intergenerational compact.” It’s the notion that our organization must equally value all our customers, including our prospective customers in future generations. We have a 167-year habit of attracting new clients by taking exceptional care of the existing clients we proudly serve—but we never lose sight of the future. Strong leadership extends beyond a given quarter or a year. To me, strategic planning and execution must be viewed through a multi-generational lens, transcending fads and market cycles. Leaders must remember that our organizations were built by those who came before us, and it is our duty to strengthen them for the generations to come.

Keep pushing the gas pedal to the floor. When organizations ascend to leadership positions in their industry, I often see the same kind of mistake in action. C-suite leaders choose to hunker down, get conservative and protect their leads—instead of seizing the opportunity to get even further ahead. Organizations need to stay on offense, and that mentality needs to start at the top. During my time as CEO, Northwestern Mutual transformed from a world-class life insurance company into a preeminent financial services provider. We’ve led our industry in individual life insurance sales, increased our market share, and recently announced a historic $8.2 billion dividend payout for policyowners in 2025. Meanwhile, our wealth business has also experienced significant growth, expanding about 600 percent from $53 billion in total client assets in 2010 to $309 billion as of June 2024.

Today, more Americans have the promise of true financial security because of the comprehensive approach to financial planning we offer in the marketplace. As our future CEO Tim Gerend prepares to write Northwestern Mutual’s next chapter, I know that he will push hard to continue accelerating our growth. I hope these words will help to guide his peers and other soon-to-be senior leaders inside and outside of our industry to long-term success.

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