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Are you ready for the unexpected?

Are you ready for the unexpected?

Succession Planning

Succession planning is an integral part of effective, long-term strategic planning and risk mitigation. Succession planning is not about “replacing” a departing executive, it is a strategic long-term plan around talent management and business continuity.

Ultimately, a succession plan is the preparation that will allow a board to build their perfect senior leadership team over a period of time – mitigating the risks involved in a less-than-perfect hire to a critical position.

The unexpected departure of an executive can be devastating. It can have a catastrophic impact on operations, market perception and the morale of the company. Having a rigorous succession plan in place significantly reduces the turbulence of executive departures. In addition to executive succession planning, a robust plan for your board is essential to ensure continuity and efficiency.

Our Process

Succession Planning strategies should start between 3 and 5 years ahead of when they are expected to be needed. Although, CHA recommends using the process outlined below, all of our solutions are bespoke and we can help support you with any part of the process.

Succession planning is part of strategic planning

It should be aligned with your company’s goals, values and long-term objectives. During our initial discussions we will work with you to understand:

  • Key internal & external stakeholders who will execute the strategy
  • Identify & assess “critical roles”
  • Understand culture & understand medium & long-term strategy
  • Agree desired skill & competencies
  • Review or create a diversity strategy & set targets

Once we have agreed on target roles, we will begin to map out your organisation and existing talent; assessing them against the agreed attributes, external talent and potential for development and leadership.

In addition, we will work with you to establish a process for regular identification of prospective external candidates – this is important in identifying external talent but also for facilitating benchmarking exercises and comparison to internal candidates.

Once you have identified your talent, it is essential you are able to retain them.

We can work with you to ensure the proper processes and reviews are in place to ensure internally identified talent remains challenged and engaged.

Once we have identified high potential external talent, we can work with you to commence a structured and thoughtful approach to those candidates and start the process of bringing them on board.

Once promising individuals have been identified, we will work with you and them to outline individual learning and development strategies.

We can use our assessment tools as well as our access to a network of world class mentors and executive coaches to continue to support their development. We can also support in areas such as interview techniques and public speaking.

We will work with you to carefully monitor where we are in the process and ensure that the identified talent is progressing.

This allows us to make changes or revisit previous stages should any unexpected scenarios arise.

The process around succession planning never ends; once we complete the process with a successful appointment, we start again!

Global Executive Search

& Trusted Leadership Advisor.