Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within, Fourth Edition

CHAPTER 1

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What Is Succession Planning

and Management?

Six Ministudies:

Can You Solve These Succession Problems?

How is your organization handling succession planning and management (SP&M)?

Read the following vignettes and, on a separate sheet, describe how your organization

would solve the problem presented in each. If you can offer an effective solution to

all the problems in the vignettes, then your organization may already have an effective

SP&M program in place; if not, your organization may have an urgent need to devote

more attention to succession issues.

Vignette 1

An airplane crashes in the desert, killing all on board. Among the passengers are

several top managers of Acme Engineering, a successful consulting firm. When the

vice president of human resources at Acme is summoned to the phone to receive the

news, she gasps, turns pale, looks blankly at her secretary, and breathlessly voices the

first question that enters her mind: ‘‘Now who’s in charge?’’

Vignette 2

On the way to a business meeting in Bogota, Colombia, the CEO of Normal Fixtures

(a maker of ceramic bathroom fixtures) is seized and held for ransom by freedom

fighters. They demand U.S. $1 million within 72 hours, or they will kill him. Members

of the corporate board are beside themselves with concern.

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4 Background Information About Succession Planning and Management

Vignette 3

Georgina Myers, supervisor of a key assembly line, has just called in sick after two

years of perfect attendance. She personally handles all purchasing and production

scheduling in the small plant, as well as overseeing the assembly line. The production

manager, Mary Rawlings, does not know how the plant will function in the absence

of this key employee, who carries in her head essential and proprietary knowledge of

production operations. She is sure that production will be lost today because Georgina

has no trained backup.

Vignette 4

Marietta Diaz was not promoted to supervisor. She is convinced that she is a victim

of racial and sexual discrimination. Her manager, Wilson Smith, assures her that that

is not the case. He explains his reason to her: ‘‘You just don’t have the skills and

experience to do the work. Gordon Hague, who was promoted, already possesses

those skills. The decision was based strictly on individual merit and supervisory job

requirements.’’ But Marietta remains troubled. How, she wonders, could Gordon

have acquired those skills in his previous nonsupervisory job?

Vignette 5

Morton Wile is about to retire as CEO of Multiplex Systems. For several years he has

been grooming L. Carson Adams as his successor. Adams has held the posts of execu-

tive vice president and chief operating officer, and his performance has been exem-

plary in those positions. Wile has long been convinced that Adams will make an

excellent CEO. But, as his retirement date approaches, Wile has recently been hearing

questions about his choice. Several division vice presidents and members of the board

of directors have asked him privately how wise it is to allow Adams to take over, since

(it is whispered) he has had a long-term, high-profile extramarital affair with his

secretary and is rumored to be an alcoholic. How, they wonder, can he be chosen to

assume the top leadership position when he is burdened with such personal baggage?

Wile is loathe to talk to Adams about these matters because he does not want to

police anyone’s personal life. But he is sufficiently troubled to think about initiating

an executive search for a CEO candidate from outside the company.

Vignette 6

Linda Childress is general manager of a large consumer products plant in the Mid-

west. She has helped her plant weather many storms. The first was a corporate-

sponsored voluntary early retirement program, which began eight years ago. In that

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