Green Bay - As the Green Bay Packers move closer to identifying their final candidates for the CEO and president position, there are concerns both inside and outside of the organization that the team's executive committee is marginalizing Bob Harlan's role in picking a successor and carving out more authority for itself.
In its worst days, the Packers organization has suffered from splintered leadership from its 46-member board of directors and its more exclusive seven-man executive committee, and there is fear within the halls of 1265 Lombardi Ave. that the club could be headed back in that direction.
One sign may be the decision by the search committee - which is made up of six executive committee members plus five other board members - to no longer include Harlan, the team's outgoing CEO and president, in the hiring process. According to sources within the organization, Harlan had been attending search committee meetings as late as last month but was recently told he would not be present when the next round of interviews takes place with candidates.
The exclusion of Harlan from that part of the process is a clear sign that the executive committee, which oversees all aspects of the organization, is taking on a more corporate flavor. Sources said the board's decision to exclude Harlan follows protocol in the business world in which the outgoing CEO does not have a say in picking his successor.
Peter Platten, the longest standing member of the executive committee and its new vice president, acknowledged that the committee was applying a business model to its search process, but he insisted Harlan was still being used as an adviser during the search. He said the committee could call Harlan into a meeting anytime it wanted if it sought his counsel.
"This is just the way it's normally done," said Platten, who is the chairman of the search committee. "I talk with Bob I would think every day relative to a whole range of things, including the search. But we do seek and get his advice and he'll help us if we want him to call somebody. Whatever it is. He's been very helpful."
Reached at his office Friday, Harlan said he preferred not to discuss his role in the search process. He referred all questions to Platten.
Harlan created the 11-man search committee when his hand-picked successor, John Jones, was deemed unfit for the job. Jones, who had been with the organization since 1999, was scheduled to take over as CEO in June, but Harlan had second thoughts and recommended to the executive committee that he not be given the job.
Search firm hired
Harlan agreed to stay on as president and CEO until a replacement was found. The Packers hired the executive search firm Spencer Stuart to identify candidates and narrowed a list of about 60 applicants to 12 by mid-October. The committee is focusing on a smaller number now in preparation for creating a short list of what Platten said would be "three to five candidates."
He said the committee hopes to have the finalists identified in a couple of weeks. It's possible the new president and CEO will be named before the football season ends, but Platten said that was not a specific goal of the committee.
Since the beginning, Harlan and former executive committee member John Underwood have served as advisers to the search committee, but the fact neither has direct involvement in the interview process has been cause for concern for some in the organization who wonder whether the search committee has the expertise to identify a truly capable successor.
Harlan has 37 years of experience with the Packers, and Underwood is so well respected among owners that former commissioner Paul Tagliabue asked him to be on a special committee when the NFL was negotiating a collective bargaining agreement extension with the players last year.
The search committee is made of a number of very successful business people who donate their time to help run the Packers, but only Platten remains from the group Harlan began his presidency with in 1989. All of the current executive committee members were trained in a corporate environment, but none has a connection to the NFL other than his current position.
Commissioner consulted
In addition to using a search firm, the search committee is consulting with commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL management counsel. The latter was where Harlan received the recommendation for Jones.
"Pro sports is different than your average business," former Packers general manager Ron Wolf said. "What about football can they ask (a potential candidate)? It's not just football either. Green Bay is a different place.
"If they're not using Bob Harlan, they're failing to use an asset. It's disappointing. I'm a Green Bay Packer through and through. I think if you take a guy who sat in that chair and was a vital part of the franchise and you put him on the sidelines, it makes no sense to me."
Wolf said that one of the reasons he did not accept the Packers' offer to become their general manager in 1987 was because he thought the interview process was flawed. He said then-president Judge Robert Parins didn't want to talk about football, and he knew right away that there would be no definitive lines drawn on how the football operation was run.
When he interviewed with Harlan four years later, Wolf said Harlan asked the right questions and assured him there would be no interference between the executive committee and the football operation. He said Harlan may have erred in selecting Jones, but you can't ignore the moves he's made to turn the Packers into a winning franchise.
"Let me put it to you like this, do you think (general manager) Ted Thompson has done a good job?" Wolf said. "They're 7-1. Where would they be if some outside committee had to choose who the next GM was going to be? Unless you know the NFL, you're going to have trouble making that choice.
"You have to know a guy inwardly and know the person for years and have an intuitive feel for personnel. That doesn't come from hiring a search firm out of Los Angeles or New York or wherever."
Board's potential feared
Some current and former Packers employees, all of whom asked not to be identified, expressed surprise that the Packers were not involving Harlan in the interview process and wondered if it was a sign that the executive committee was seeking to extend its reach in the operation. The fear that the board would become involved in football operations extends throughout the building, one source said.
The possibility does exist that the search committee will settle on someone with little or no NFL experience whose expertise is in the business world. That scares people in the football operation because that person will be responsible for determining the fate of the general manager and head coach.
Platten said that the current group of candidates includes a combination of those with NFL experience and those without. He did not identify any of the candidates, but he said he was relatively confident that Harlan's successor would come from that group.
"(It will be) a person who has an overriding interest in professional football and in football in general because if a person had that they probably were interested in college football and then pro football as they grew older," Platten said.
In the history of the Packers, the franchise has been its strongest when it featured a single authoritative leader and weakest when the lines of authority were blurred. Specifically, the Packers flourished with Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi and Wolf captaining the ship and foundered in the periods between them.
Platten said unequivocally that the executive committee was not seeking any more authority than it had during Harlan's tenure. He said they have taken a more active role in the business side of the operation because Jones' departure left them short in numbers, but once the new president and CEO is on board they will become merely an oversight committee.
"I've talked with a lot of the board members from time to time and everybody supports the way we're structured," Platten said. "I really believe, and I talked to Bob about this this morning, he felt Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy are the best combination in football since Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren. I feel that also. We're very fortunate to have those two and there won't be anyone interfering with that."