From what I've seen most of the hyper-successful tech companies...

From what I've seen most of the hyper-successful tech companies are started by founders that are foremost obsessed by the product, and not exactly bean counter/legal/MBA types. So doesn't surprise me that Rod would rather work on an area where he thinks he can contribute most to Xero's success. Sounds like a pretty mature and humble thing to do - to realize that he might not have the skills to be the best CEO Xero can have going forward.

Another example where an external CEO was brought in, letting the founders focus on the product is Google I guess (back when Eric Schmidt was brought in), and I'd argue it worked out pretty well for them. So it can work. Whether it will in this case - we'll see. It certainly won't be easy to grab market share from Intuit, but it sure won't happen without focus on a great product.