The Cost of the Wrong C-Suite A Human Capital Data Report
Global research on failed executive appointments — and what the data says when applied to Juventus and AC Milan's decade of structural instability.
The Numbers at a Glance
The research consensus is unambiguous. Between 40% and 50% of senior executive hires fail within 18 months. The cost of that failure — depending on the methodology applied — ranges from two to twenty-seven times the executive's annual compensation. In football clubs, where every leadership decision cascades directly into squad performance, fan revenue, and market value, the multiplier is higher still.
within 18 months
cultural fit, not skills
of failed executive hire
in 12 years (2012–2025)
in 12 years (2012–2025)
Juventus since 2019
The Cost of a Failed C-Suite Appointment
The range of estimates varies by methodology, but the direction is consistent across every major source. At the low end, a failed executive costs two to five times their annual salary. At the high end — where opportunity cost, cultural damage, and cascading team attrition are included — the multiple reaches twenty-seven. The midpoint across all methodologies sits at approximately 10× to 15×.
"We've found that 40 per cent of executives hired at the senior level are pushed out, fail or quit within 18 months. It's expensive in terms of lost revenue. It's expensive in terms of the individual's hiring. It's damaging to morale."
Kevin Kelly, CEO — Heidrick & Struggles (Financial Times)12 Years of Managerial Instability — The Evidence
Between 2012 and 2025, Juventus appointed 8 head coaches and AC Milan appointed 12. The pattern is not one of isolated decisions. It is a structural cycle — where visible failure is replaced without addressing the conditions that produced it. The data below maps coaching changes alongside transfer expenditure and financial intervention, providing a complete picture of the compounding cost.
Juventus — Complete Coaching Record 2011–2025
| Manager | From | To | Serie A Titles | Outcome | Salary (approx. €M net) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antonio Conte | Jun 2011 | Jun 2014 | 3 | Resigned | ~€3.5M |
| Massimiliano Allegri (1st) | Jul 2014 | Jun 2019 | 5 | Mutual agreement | ~€7.0M |
| Maurizio Sarri | Jun 2019 | Aug 2020 | 1 | Sacked | ~€6.0M |
| Andrea Pirlo | Aug 2020 | Jun 2021 | 0 | Sacked | ~€1.5M |
| Massimiliano Allegri (2nd) | Jul 2021 | May 2024 | 0 | Sacked | ~€7.0M |
| Thiago Motta | Jul 2024 | Mar 2025 | 0 | Sacked — contract running to 2027 | ~€4.0M |
| Igor Tudor | Mar 2025 | Sep 2025 | 0 | Sacked (3rd in 18 months) | ~€2.5M |
| Luciano Spalletti | Oct 2025 | Present | 0 | Active | ~€4.0M |
AC Milan — Complete Coaching Record 2010–2026
| Manager | From | To | Serie A Titles | Outcome | Salary (approx. €M net) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massimiliano Allegri (1st) | Jun 2010 | Jan 2014 | 1 | Sacked | ~€3.5M |
| Clarence Seedorf | Jan 2014 | Jun 2014 | 0 | Sacked after 4 months | ~€1.5M |
| Filippo Inzaghi | Jun 2014 | Jun 2015 | 0 | Not renewed | ~€1.5M |
| Sinisa Mihajlovic | Jun 2015 | Apr 2016 | 0 | Sacked | ~€2.0M |
| Cristian Brocchi | Apr 2016 | Jun 2016 | 0 | Interim | ~€0.5M |
| Vincenzo Montella | Jun 2016 | Nov 2017 | 0 | Sacked | ~€2.5M |
| Gennaro Gattuso | Nov 2017 | Jun 2019 | 0 | Mutual consent | ~€2.5M |
| Marco Giampaolo | Jun 2019 | Oct 2019 | 0 | Sacked after 7 games | ~€2.0M |
| Stefano Pioli | Oct 2019 | Jun 2024 | 1 | Contract ended — paid to Jun 2025 | ~€4.0M |
| Paulo Fonseca | Jun 2024 | Dec 2024 | 0 | Sacked — contract runs to 2027 | ~€2.5M |
| Sergio Conceição | Dec 2024 | Jun 2025 | 0 | Left after 6 months | ~€2.5M |
| Massimiliano Allegri (2nd) | Jul 2025 | May 2026 | 0 | Sacked — full C-Suite dismissed | ~€5.0M |
Investment, Transfer Spending & the Cost of Instability
The financial picture reinforces the structural argument. Juventus and AC Milan have each spent more than €200 million net on transfers since 2019 — while Inter Milan, operating with a fundamentally different ownership philosophy during the same period, recorded a net spend of just €19 million. The contrast is not about financial capacity. It is about the quality of the system within which investment decisions are made.
Applying the Global HC Model to Football Leadership
The chart below applies the Topgrading 5× (conservative) and 27× (full compounding) cost multipliers to estimated annual compensation for three football leadership roles — CEO, Sporting Director, and Head Coach. This is an illustrative analytical model, not a claim of precise calculation. Its purpose is to show the order of magnitude at which leadership failure operates in a top-flight football environment.
What the Data Tells Us — And What It Does Not
The global research establishes a baseline: between 40% and 50% of senior executive hires fail within 18 months, and 89% of those failures are caused by cultural misalignment, not technical incompetence. Juventus and AC Milan, observed across a twelve-year period, have produced a pattern that is entirely consistent with what the research would predict when leadership evaluation is conducted through a technical-credentials lens alone.
Eight head coaches at Juventus in twelve years. Twelve at Milan. Neither club won the Scudetto in the six years from 2019 to 2025, despite combined net transfer expenditure exceeding €425 million. Juventus required over €1 billion in capital injections across four recapitalisations — and as of 2025 continues to pay the salary of a sacked coach whose contract does not expire until 2027.
The data does not prove that these clubs chose the wrong coaches. It demonstrates that a repeating cycle of appointment, failure and replacement — regardless of who is chosen — is the structural signature of an environment that has not resolved the question upstream of recruitment: what kind of person, with what kind of operating style, cultural intelligence, and contextual fit, is this specific organisation capable of supporting?
The methodology underpinning DIOGENE Recruiting Intelligence addresses precisely the gap the data identifies. The global research shows that technical skill accounts for only 11% of executive failure. The remaining 89% — coachability, emotional regulation, cultural alignment, interpersonal judgement — are the variables that traditional evaluation frameworks systematically underweight.
DIOGENE was developed by Xerendipity Corporation Ltd. and Thelayma Human Capital over more than two decades of applied practice in human assessment, placement, and performance evaluation across private households, family offices, and executive environments. Its core question — not "who is qualified?" but "who will create value in this exact environment, with these pressures and this cultural architecture?" — is the precise question the data says must be asked before any appointment is confirmed.
The clubs that build their leadership evaluation around that question will produce fewer expensive corrections. The clubs that do not will continue to generate the pattern the data already documents.