[kelnos]

> If you thought those internal candidates were better, why didn’t you promote them before?

Bad judgment. I've seen plenty of capable people in management positions who get supplanted by outside hires installed above them. Sure, sometimes it does work out, but many many times it does not. The outside hire ends up pissing people off to the point where most of the high-performing talent (including the people who were passed over for promotion) leave, and the department goes down in flames. I've seen this happen firsthand quite a few times, and hear about it happening all the time.