When Nike said on Thursday that John Donahoe was stepping down as chief executive officer, his exit from a rocky tenure offered a brutal reminder to corporate boards: Focus on what a company's core business is when looking for a new CEO.

Nike’s outgoing chief executive, John Donahoe, is an Ivy League-educated former tech executive and Bain consultant. The man who will take his place, Elliott Hill, started at Nike as an intern and spent his entire career at “the swoosh”, bar a brief stint as an assistant trainer for the Dallas Cowboys football team.