Facebook which has just lost two of its top executives, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, is suffering from talent drain problem, says management guru Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.
While Systrom and Krieger did not reveal the reason for their departure as the chief executive officer and chief technical officer, respectively, according to media reports, their departure might be due to tensions between them and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook has been the focus of an investigation and is facing intense public outrage from users because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, wherein the British consulting company gained access to over 87 million user accounts data.
Systrom and Krieger in a blog post said that the pair wants to explore curiosity and creativity again. While it is common for founders to leave a company once it is acquired, Sonnenfeld said it’s possible that ‘creative talent can be retained.’
He further cited the case of Disney retaining the talent at Lucas Films and Walmart holding onto the teams at Jet.com. He also said Apple has retained remarkable talent.
Several top executives have left Facebook during the past year, as it faced heat over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian election meddling.
According to Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean at the Yale School of Management and a CNBC contributor, there seems to be a culture shift at Facebook, ‘where the sense of courage and creativity seems to be displaced with something that has a lot more to do with ambition and arrogance.’
Facebook recently hired Antonio Lucio, who will work across the social media giant's family of apps, including WhatsApp and Instagram.
Lucio will report to Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and will be a part of Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg's leadership team.
‘Facebook is bad for the economy, bad for America, bad for the planet. But to be fair, I think Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl [Sandberg] have built a fantastic team, and they've been pretty good around retaining the employees,’ added Sonnnenfeld.
