Noam Wasserman is a professor in the entrepreneurial management unit at Harvard Business School and author of the "Founder Frustrations" research blog.

My research on founders and CEO succession prompted two key questions about the move by Yahoo’s board to replace CEO Terry Semel with Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. (Semel is being moved to non-executive chairman.) The first is about the board's stated desire to find a new CEO whose skills are a better match for the needs of the company. Does Yang have the skills necessary to turn Yahoo around? The deck is certainly stacked against him, especially as a founder who did not serve as CEO of his company even during its early years, and especially in a 12,000 person company whose management team has big holes. With Semel handling the CEO duties, Yang’s major focus had been on external partnerships, culture building, and being “the public face of Yahoo.”

That’s why Yahoo’s promotion of Susan Decker, its former CFO and current executive vice president, to COO, is so critical -- as she will fill some of the holes in Yang’s skill set. Yang and Decker have already had the chance to work together, build a relationship, and assess their compatibility. Without such a foundation, the duo would be facing even tougher challenges.

The second question: Is it a good idea to keep Semel around now? In contrast to the usual public-company succession, where the departing CEO does not stay in the company in any central capacity (see: Jack Welch after GE, Lou Gerstner after IBM), Yahoo is retaining Semel as chairman. Such a move can complicate things for the successor, especially when the former CEO still has loyalists within the company, or when the former CEO is a powerful founder (with Phil Knight at Nike being only one recent example). Interesting theories have been proposed for Yahoo’s unusual arrangement: for instance, that it was a compromise designed to win over board members who were allies of Semel, or that it enables Yahoo to replace its CEO while being able to avoid paying severance or fully vesting his equity (helping avoid further criticism over his compensation).

Whatever the case, Semel may also turn out to be a key piece of the puzzle regarding my first question. With Semel as chairman, Yang will be able to tap him for guidance as he heads into uncharted waters as CEO (on Monday, Yang publicly praised Semel for his “mentorship” and “guidance”) and the board’s press release praises Semel’s “willingness to stay on to assist Jerry, Sue, and the board as we drive Yahoo forward.” In addition, the board could be using Semel as an insurance policy -- keeping around an experienced person who could step back into the CEO role if the young Yang-Decker team falters.

Yahoo’s move brings to mind a parallel case that might give greater confidence to those rooting for a Yahoo resurgence. At E Ink, when the board hired an experienced industry executive as CEO, co-founder Russ Wilcox used his time wisely, accumulating the experiences necessary to become CEO if the need arose. When the time came for the board to find a replacement for the CEO, it decided that Wilcox was a better candidate than any outsider and promoted him to the job. The company has shown recent signs of success under Wilcox’s leadership. If Yang has used his time to build skills wisely, as Wilcox seems to have done, Yang’s chances as CEO are much improved, though still very challenging in a company Yahoo’s size.

There are probably many more interesting developments to watch and questions to ask during the next stages of this unusual CEO-succession story.

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