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Research Outline

Prepared for Anna | Delivered July 18, 2019

Succession Planning Best Practices

Goals

To establish succession planning best practices preferably from the media and tech industries that will be used in revamping a company's succession plan.

Early Findings

  •  Prepare succession plan as early as possible: Succession planning should be done early on to avoid challenges when a leader leaves unexpectedly. In addition, succession planning should begin as early as 5 years before the exit of the current leaders in an organization.
  •  Identifying replacements: Possible replacements within the organization should be identified. This is requires a regular review of the current employees skills and capabilities. For technology companies, identifying possible successors who possess both IT and leadership skills would be ideal.
  • Commitment from CEO and Board of Directors: Succession planning should not be confined to the HR department but should instead be led by an organization's top leadership (that is, the CEO and the Board of Directors). Having commitment from the CEO and Board of Directors ensures that process gets assigned the right time and resources to ensure its success.
  •  Testing leadership mettle: A succession plan should allow leaders to test potential successors' leadership skills through allowing them to tag along on top meetings and asking them tough questions to get their perspective.