Some companies cheer when alumni move on and up

— -- They revel in it. Consider:

•Baxter so celebrated its departures that it sponsored CEO reunions, says Harvard Business School professor Monica Higgins, author of Career Imprints, which documents Baxter's CEO alumni.

•When a GE highflier leaves "for a huge external opportunity, it enhances our employment brand," says Susan Peters, executive vice president of executive development.

Doug Tough, now CEO of protective glove and condom maker Ansell Ltd., joined P&G out of graduate school and worked there for 12 years before joining Cadbury Schweppes.

"At P&G, they accepted the fact that people simply leave, as other companies recognize P&G as a fertile training ground," Tough says. "I was hired away by a former P&Ger, as were many others. It was simply viewed as a fact of life."

P&G CEO A.G. Lafley says that when executives leave for greener pastures, they are warned not to recruit others with them. "We have a conversation about precisely that." Most want to maintain good relationships with P&G, he says.

GE has long participated in articles about its CEO all-stars. Peters says turnover is monitored closely, and "We lose less than 4% of our executives voluntarily each year." She says that's not bad, considering that headhunters call almost everyone at GE who has made middle manager. The average tenure of top GE executives: 28 years.