The decline of the baronial CEO

Changes in corporate leadership are recasting the very idea of industry in US

They bestrode the business world, or at least the suburban corporate campus, like a colossus. Sitting behind burnished wooden desks, in glass-walled corner offices like the one Jeffrey R Immelt occupied at General Electric’s former headquarters here in Fairfield, Connecticut, a select group of American chief executives were once more akin to statesmen than businessmen.

GE moved out of this sprawling Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed emblem of 1970s corporate modernism in favour of smaller, humbler digs in downtown Boston last year. And last week, Mr. Immelt unexpectedly announced plans to retire after 16 years in the top job, amid a sagging