多年来，黄仁勋在将英伟达（Nvidia）塑造成全球最具实力公司之一的过程中，一直推行扁平化的领导模式。他在周三丑闻缠身之际的突然离职，正对这种管理模式进行前所未有的严峻考验。
For years, Jensen Huang embraced a flat leadership model as he molded Nvidia into one of the world's most powerful companies. His sudden exit Wednesday amid scandal puts that arrangement to the test like never before.
在上世纪90年代初于一家丹尼斯（Denny's）餐厅共同创立这家芯片巨头后，黄仁勋此后对英伟达的领导层采取了多达60名直接下属直接向其汇报的架构。这种刻意保持高层扁平化的架构，曾被他归功于有助于公司保持信息的“流动性”并赋予员工权力。然而，高层管理观察人士向《商业内幕》（Business Insider）表示，成功科技创始人的光环，再加上高层层级较少的组织架构，可能会导致公司缺乏厚实的接班人梯队。
After cofounding the chip giant at a Denny's restaurant in the early 1990s, Huang went on to lead Nvidia with as many as 60 direct reports. That deliberately flat structure at the top was something he credited with helping the company keep information "fluid" and employees empowered. Yet the halo surrounding a successful tech founder, combined with an org chart light on top layers, can leave a company with a thin succession bench, C-suite observers told Business Insider.
领导力咨询公司RHR International高级合伙人戴维·阿斯特里诺（David Astorino）表示：“很难想象这些直接下属中有任何人能够获得足够的规模、范围和经验，以至于具备担任首席执行官的资格。”
"It's hard to imagine any of those direct reports are able to get the scale, scope, and experience to even be qualified to be the CEO," said David Astorino, a senior partner at leadership consulting firm RHR International.
英伟达此前并未公开披露接班计划。阿斯特里诺说，在任命一名内部临时首席执行官接替黄仁勋的同时启动寻找正式继任者的程序（包括内部和外部候选人），这表明该公司在幕后也没有物色到合适的人选。英伟达没有回应《商业内幕》的置评请求。
Nvidia hadn't publicly disclosed a succession plan. The company's appointment of an internal interim CEO to replace Huang while launching a search for a permanent replacement, including internal and external candidates, suggests it also didn't have an obvious candidate in mind behind the scenes, said Astorino. Nvidia didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
阿斯特里诺表示，黄仁勋巨大的个人地位造成了“关键人物风险”，即过多的控制权集中在单一高管手中。他说，由于英伟达在人工智能生态系统中处于核心地位，这个问题对该公司而言尤为尖锐。
Astorino said Huang's outsize status created "key-person risk," in which too much control rests with a single executive. He said the problem is particularly acute for Nvidia because of its central position in the AI ecosystem.
咨询公司ZRG管理合伙人兼人力资源业务负责人丹·卡普兰（Dan Kaplan）表示，创始人在经历多年来被告知其想法会失败的历程后，可能会习惯于对质疑置之不理，这使得说服他们规划没有自己的未来变得格外困难。
Dan Kaplan, managing partner and head of the HR practice at the consulting firm ZRG, said founders can be conditioned to brush off doubts after years of being told their ideas would fail, making it especially hard to persuade them to plan for a future without them.
他说：“他们不善于听取反对意见。”在建立公司的过程中，面对多年的怀疑者，他们“磨练出了尽可能厚实的脸皮”。
"They're not great at hearing no," he said. "They develop the thickest skin possible" after years of hearing from skeptics while building their companies.
卡普兰说：“当你拥有这样一个扁平化的组织时，它对速度很有利。但它不利于培养领导者。”英伟达的接班人危机反映了更广泛的企业困境：董事会往往只有在准备窗口缩小之后才开始规划。在纳斯达克2025年的一项针对约700名董事会成员、首席执行官、高管和治理专业人士的调查中，21%的人表示他们的董事会没有首席执行官接班计划，另有16%的人表示他们只有应急计划。
"When you have a flat organization like this, it's great for speed. It's not great for developing leaders," Kaplan said. Nvidia's succession crunch reflects a broader corporate dilemma: Boards too often begin planning only after the window to prepare has narrowed. In a 2025 Nasdaq survey of about 700 board members, CEOs, executives, and governance professionals, 21% said their boards had no CEO succession plan, while another 16% said they had only an emergency plan.
在有报道称黄仁勋有多起婚外情，且董事会正在调查他可能成为外国情报工作目标的担忧之际，黄仁勋辞去了首席执行官、总裁和董事会成员职务。英伟达任命其首席财务官科莱特·克雷斯为临时首席执行官，同时物色正式接班人。
Huang resigned as CEO, president, and board member amid reports of multiple extramarital affairs and a board investigation into concerns that he may have been the subject of a foreign intelligence effort. Nvidia named Colette Kress, its CFO, interim CEO while it searches for a permanent replacement.
Bully Pulpit International合伙人、财富50强公司前首席发言人布拉德利·阿库布伊罗表示，这次突然的过渡突显了创始人领导的企业的一个普遍脆弱性。他说，原因在于创始人的身份往往与组织的成败捆绑在一起。
The abrupt transition underscores a common vulnerability for founder-led companies, said Bradley Akubuiro, a partner at Bully Pulpit International and former Fortune 50 chief spokesperson. The reason, he said, is that founders' identities often become tied to an organization's success or failure.
阿库布伊罗说，总体而言，董事会可以通过增加一名独立董事、首席董事或主席来降低这种风险，这些人可以为创始人领导的公司带来更多治理，并将接班规划提上议程。他们应该确保在首席执行官意外离职时，有人能够提供业务连续性。
Boards in general can mitigate that risk by adding an independent director, lead director, or chair who can bring more governance to a founder-led company and keep succession planning on the agenda, Akubuiro said. They should ensure that someone can provide continuity if a CEO leaves unexpectedly.
他说：“并不总是会出现违纪行为。可能会发生各种各样的事情。”
"It isn't always going to be misconduct," he said. "Any number of things could happen."
阿库布伊罗补充说，一个可行的接班计划需要的不仅仅是在组织架构图上写上一个名字。他说，潜在的接班人需要丰富的运营经验、与董事会接触的机会，以及在投资者、客户和其他利益相关者中享有足够的能见度，以激发人们对他们具备接班能力的信心。
A viable succession plan requires more than putting a name on an org chart, Akubuiro added. Potential successors need substantial operational experience, exposure to the board, and sufficient visibility with investors, customers, and other stakeholders to inspire confidence that they have what it takes to step in, he said.
然而，高管猎头公司金斯利门（Kingsley Gate）的联合创始人兼首席战略官乌梅什·拉马克里希南表示，即使公司做了这种规划工作，他们往往也会将其秘而不宣。
Even when companies do that planning work, however, they often keep it quiet, said Umesh Ramakrishnan, cofounder and chief strategy officer at the executive search firm Kingsley Gate.
他表示，因为公开指定继任者可能会使现任首席执行官沦为跛脚鸭，促使未被选中的竞争者辞职，并引发围绕准接班人的内部权力争夺。拉马克里什南说：“整个组织开始向继任者靠拢，因为他们知道那里的权力中心将要转移到那里。”不过，他表示，董事会应当在危机爆发前的很长一段时间就开始筹划接班人计划，培养两到三名优秀的内部候选人，赋予他们实质性的运营职责，并建立激励机制以促使他们在过渡期间留任。
That's because publicly naming a successor can turn the sitting CEO into a lame duck, prompt passed-over contenders to resign, and invite internal jockeying for influence around the heir apparent, he said. "The organization starts gravitating toward the successor because they know that's where the power center is going to be," Ramakrishnan said. Still, he said that boards should begin succession planning well before a crisis, cultivating two or three serious internal candidates, giving them substantial operating responsibility, and creating incentives for them to stay through the transition.
风险投资基金Deep33的联合创始人兼管理合伙人利奥尔·普罗索尔表示，多年来英伟达一直是一家“极具凝聚力的公司”，部分原因是员工能够参与该公司惊人的股价飙升。随着该公司股价遭遇挫折，领导层的动荡可能会给竞争对手提供一个新的契机，以招募其最宝贵的人才。普罗索尔说：“员工们可能破天荒第一次在问：‘我的股权还值多少钱？它能以多快的速度恢复？’”
Lior Prosor, cofounder and managing partner at the venture fund Deep33, said Nvidia has been a "super sticky organization" for years, in part because employees could take part in the company's extraordinary stock run-up. With the company's shares taking a hit, the leadership upheaval could give rivals a fresh opening to recruit some of its most valuable talent. "For the first time ever," employees may be asking, "How much will my equity be worth? How quickly does it come back?"
Gartner人力资源业务资深分析师亚历山大·基尔斯表示，英伟达的困境可以为管理层级扁平化的公司提供一个吸取教训的机会。他说：“没有任何员工是不可替代的。这其中也包括首席执行官。”
Prosor said. Nvidia's troubles could serve as a learning opportunity for companies that have flattened management structures, said Alexander Kirss, a director analyst in Gartner's HR practice. "No employee is irreplaceable," he said. "That includes the CEO."