Over the past five-odd years German business network Xing has been a beacon of stable management in a sea of instability.

In the same period the auction platform eBay.de was the opposite: senior management came and went almost on a monthly basis.

When the eBay boss changed ship to Xing in January this year, I wondered out loud whether this might spell the end of stable management for Xing. Last week the first senior Xing manager jumped ship – a short six months after the new boss got on.

The manager responsible for income source development Davide Villa (previously CEO of Monster in Germany), resigned and joined his wife’s business in Switzerland. Villa had been with Xing for roughly a year.

Could I have been right in my observation? Could there, in fact, be a link between the new boss and edgy, unhappy managers?

The German newspapers had lots of good things to say today about the person nominated to take over from Lars Hinrichs, founder and CEO of business network Xing.com, on 15 January next year.

But, I’m not so sure. [Read on]