Netflix recently named its content chief, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO along with Reed Hastings.

The co-CEO system is nothing new — Chipotle, Whole Foods, Deutsche Bank, and Samsung have had more than one CEO at the same time.

Having more than one chief executive can help a company accomplish more, but the system is certainly not for every company.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Netflix recently named its content chief, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO along with Reed Hastings.

"To be totally clear, I'm in for a decade," said Hastings during the company's quarterly earnings call.

Netflix isn't the first major company to tap more than one CEO at the same time. Chipotle, Whole Foods, and Deutsche Bank have also been run by two CEOs. Samsung even has three of them. But why?

The co-CEO system is nothing new, though it is certainly uncommon. Previous implementations suggest that having more than one chief executive can help a company accomplish more by delegating different roles to each head. But the system is certainly not for every company.

Sometimes referred to as "two-in-the-box," the unusual structure can provide "increased scope and broader capacity," Joseph L. Bower, a management professor at Harvard Business School, told Business Insider.

Bower, author of "The CEO Within," thinks that co-CEOs can better lead certain companies.

"If one CEO is on a global tour of facilities, the other can deal with the government at home," Bower offered as an example. "It also increases the range of talents in the box. A visionary can be complemented by a hands-on operator."

This was the case when Oracle's Larry Ellison stepped down and named two CEOs to replace him. Safra Catz oversees manufacturing, finance, and legal decisions, while Mark Hurd manages the sales, service, and global business units.

Some companies keep the founder in place and bring in an experienced executive to share the role. Whole Foods has kept its founder as one CEO and remains the heart of his company. That dynamic has shown that keeping a founder at the top as an inspirational lead and partnering them with a leader with more management experience can yield great results.

Steve Ells founded Chipotle in 1993 and served as its singular CEO until 2009, when he promoted then president and COO Monty Moran to the position. That same year, Chipotle's annual earnings jumped 67% from 2008. Moran honed his delegation skills when he led a team of lawyers at the firm Messner Reeves, and those skills complemented Ells' passion for culinary creativity. Moran left the company in 2016 and Ells stepped down as CEO in 2017.

Chipotle founder Steve Ells, left, and Monty Moran were co-CEOs until Moran resigned in 2016. Ells stepped down from the role in 2017. Jason Kempin for Getty Images/Craig F. Walker for the Denver Post

Having dual CEOs is more common in countries like Germany, said Bower, where "collective management is a tradition of sorts." German company Deutsche Bank had two CEOs until 2016. SAP only recently ended its run under co-CEOs.

Jack Zenger, CEO of the leadership research firm Zenger Folkman, agrees that the co-CEO structure could work well in some situations, such as a temporary solution after a big merger or when a CEO wants to groom their successor.

But the management structure also comes with significant downsides. Even when the two CEOs determine which duties to split, it's only natural that "one person is going to be held primo and the other person is going to play a secondary role," says Zenger. "To me, it seems like it raises an unnecessary set of issues that aren't really sustainable in the long run."

For example, having two CEOs of a small business, like online eyewear retailer Warby Parker's Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa, could help grow the company by splitting major responsibilities, according to Zenger. But it could also create problems with clients who may be confused about who to consult about a major decision.

And though Zenger admits that having another executive to discuss something before approaching the board is a benefit of the system, he thinks that co-CEOs risk over complicating things by having to report to each other constantly.

Oracle's co-CEOs, Safra Catz, left, and Mark Hurd. Justin Sullivan/Getty

Bower also recognizes that most companies that try the system will feel the strain of divided command. "It takes great discipline to consult when appropriate, be decisive when needed, and not blow up the arrangement when one's partner has violated an aspect of the arrangement," he said.

In 2008, for instance, media company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia named Wenda Harris Millard and Robin Marino as dual CEOs. But the arrangement dissolved in less than a year, reportedly due to disagreements at the top.

Despite the risks, Bower thinks that the US may be gradually moving toward a leadership culture more akin to Germany's, in which co-CEOs would not be such a rarity. "[A]s we strengthen the non-executive chairman's role, as well as the lead director, we may — in effect — be moving in that direction," he said.

Zenger, on the other hand, believes that the history of business leadership weighs too heavily against the co-CEO structure becoming mainstream anytime soon. "After centuries of experience, it's usually easier if there's one person who has the ultimate say," he said.