CEO Succession Sentinel

Finding the best person to lead an enterprise is a serious undertaking, in a world bereft of business-savvy seers. Although CEOs are not singularly responsible for the success or failure of their institutions, it is the role most linked to organizational performance, and the only role for which boards have direct accountability. Making the right choice of CEO at the right time is a high stakes commission.
 
Disappointing CEO successions are known to us, but our experience with them is not as expansive. It’s clear even the most robust planning methods can let us down. To get to the bottom of what undermines good decisions in CEO appointments, Kim Stangeby interviewed over 60 senior leaders who are most often cast in the Shakespearean drama called (CEO) Succession: CEOs, board members, and CHROs.
 
Through the interviews she heard many challenges articulated, but what really struck her is how many people expressed a sense of catharsis in sharing their CEO succession experiences.
 
What surprised her most was rather than uncovering “The Top 10 Common Challenges in CEO Succession”, it emerged that there were three distinct clusters of “belief” systems. Each underlying (and undeclared) philosophy is discrete, mooring all aspects of CEO succession and generating unique challenges and risks.
 
To read the CEO Succession Sentinel: Philosophies, Approaches and a Discussion Guide to Support Boards in CEO Planning, click here.