Context
Founder Nadiem Makarim was appointed Minister of Education and Culture in October 2019. He stepped away from Gojek mid-stride, with the company at over 5,000 employees, operating across multiple Southeast Asian markets, and in active expansion mode. The default succession plan would have been a single new CEO.
Decision
Instead the board appointed two existing senior leaders as co-CEOs: Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi. The roles were explicitly split — Soelistyo on business and corporate, Aluwi on product and tech — and the decision rights were written down. The People function was elevated to report directly to both, on equal footing with the business units.
Consequence
The dual-CEO structure held for two years through Gojek's most operationally complex period including the 2020 pandemic. By the time of the Tokopedia merger in 2021, the company had successfully transitioned founder-dependence into a leadership system that did not collapse when one person was unavailable. Soelistyo became GoTo CEO post-merger.
“Founder succession does not have to be a single replacement.”
— the lesson, in one line
Lesson
Founder succession does not have to be a single replacement. If you write down the decision rights clearly and elevate the People function above the split, two leaders with non-overlapping mandates can outperform a single 'compromise' successor.
What most retellings miss
The decision rights document was the load-bearing artefact. Two co-CEOs without written rights becomes a polite stalemate within 90 days; two co-CEOs with them becomes a faster company.
Sources
HR Asia case studies are editorial analysis of public reporting and on-the-record interviews. They are not legal advice and do not reflect the views of the companies covered.
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The Gojek dual-CEO case study on HR Asia is a fresh take on founder succession. Founder succession doesn't have to be a single replacement. Two leaders with non-overlapping mandates can outperform a single compromise successor — if the decision rights are written down. https://hrasia.co/cases/gojek-dual-ceo
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