Some companies aim for executives who, by dint of age or strategic vision, convey the sense they can cater to younger, technology-savvy consumers, said Paul Saffo, managing director at investment adviser Discern Analytics.

Under CEO Steve Jobs, Apple has gained share in the digital-music and mobile-phone industries with products that demonstrate his appreciation of customers' preferences, says Saffo, whose firm is based in San Francisco.

Knowing Customers' Needs

"There's that notion that a younger perspective really matters," he said. "It's the difference between understanding new technologies intellectually versus intuitively. It's not necessarily an age thing. Look at Steve Jobs -- he's old enough to join AARP -- but he has an intuitive understanding."

Cisco CEO John Chambers, who scrapped a longstanding target for annual sales increases of as much as 17 percent earlier this month after five straight quarters of disappointing earnings reports, "could be the next target," Cusumano said.

Chambers is taking steps to revive growth by eliminating jobs, exiting lower-margin consumer businesses and dismantling a management structure that slowed decision making. Still, the shares have yet to reverse a slide that has left them 29 percent lower in the past 12 months, compared with a 24 percent gain in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

"People worry Cisco has lost their edge and John Chambers isn't what he used to be," said Dan Morgan, a fund manager at Synovus Securities Inc., which oversees $7.5 billion and cut its Cisco holdings this year, according to Bloomberg data.

Karen Tillman, a spokeswoman for San Jose, California-based Cisco, declined to comment.

CEO 'Term Limits'

Some CEOs have spent too long in the job to be able to undertake the continual reinvention needed to keep pace, said Ed Zander, who served as CEO at the company then known as Motorola Inc. and chief operating officer at Sun Microsystems.

"I've always thought there ought to be some term limits on CEOs," said Zander, who stepped down in 2008 as Motorola's CEO. "There's more questions and more focus on the management ranks, and do they have the wherewithal to keep reinventing. Some CEOs have been at it a while and it's hard."