A year or so ago I wrote about succession planning in the context of a private family business. Typically the position to be filled is the top slot; in many cases a next-generation family member is involved or the choice is between a family member and an outsider. In this Insights I would like to look at succession planning as a practice you find in mid- to large-size organizations and that focuses on certain critical or senior-level positions in the organization.
I am currently working with an organization that is about to invest significant time and resources in improving its succession planning system for its top cadre of 120 employees. The organization has 6,500 employees in all. I have worked with another mid-sized company that has been experiencing significant year-over-year growth and is filling most of its positions with outsiders. Is one of these companies right and the other wrong? What are the issues both companies need to manage to succeed?
Let me give you one other piece of information. It is commonly accepted that if you don’t do anything to alter a person’s professional development that it will take about 20 years to “grow” a general manager. Growing a general manager (GM) means that you hire a person into a relatively entry-level position and then give him or her different jobs every few years until 20 years later, you make that person your next GM.
So what are the challenges associated with creating and maintaining a superior succession planning system?
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