A recent paper suggested a link between the “success” of companies and their CEO's looks. The direction of the causation is not shown by the simple correlation, but I suggest that it is linked to the difficulty of picking the best of many strong candidates.
What the was found was a correlation between the ranking of companies in the Fortune 500, and the assessment of the CEOs' looks by a group of people who did not know who the CEOs were.
I do not think the choice of Fortune rankings as a measure of success was the best choice. Share price growth or (adjusted) earnings growth over a long period would have been better measures of increases in shareholder wealth (the avowed objective of these companies). The Fortune rankings are a measure of size, not success.
The study does not come to a conclusion about the direction of the causation: whether the successful companies hire CEOs with particular looks or whether the looks contribute to the success of the company. The former seems more probable, and I think there is a good reason to expect it.
Companies that are large or fast growing will attract stronger candidates when looking for a CEO (or any other senior position). With many strong candidates to choose from it becomes more difficult to decide who is the best on objective criteria such as track record and proven talents.
This means that the choice is more likely to be influenced by “intangible factors”, “hunches” and personality. The people making the selection being only human, this inevitably means that they will be biased in favour of candidates who “look right”.
It is worth noting that the study essentially found that the study asked a group of students to rate CEOs' photographs by characteristics such as likability, maturity and trustworthiness — in short, whether look like a CEO should.
If I am right it also means that directors who argue that they need huge pay because the company needs to attract the best, actually mean they need huge pay to attract the best looking CEO. Perhaps they should settle for a cheap, if plain, CEO, and hire a model to provide some good looks for the annual report?
As for the suggestion that looking right leads to success try this little experiment. Think of the most successful CEOs you can, preferably those who founded a successful business (to avoid recruiters' bias). How many of them really look the part? My own list look remarkably bad, especially if you search for early photographs (before they could spend money on looking right).