Do You Know Where Your Next CEO Is?

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Viewpoint July 31, 2007

Do You Know Where Your Next CEO Is? Use a supply-chain model to identify and develop potential successors to the CEO. They’re probably already working for you by Bob Eichinger Do you know who your next Chief Executive Officer will thought, while 19% revealed they hadn’t thought about be? What about the one after that? There’s a good chance their successor at all. you don’t. There’s also a good chance he or she already We all know about the upcoming demographic challenge. works for your company. During the next decade, more than 50% of baby-boomer How many viable CEO candidates do you have in your managers and executives will be retiring. CEOs are retirCEO supply chain? Your goal: Find leaders early in their ing younger. A Booz Allen Hamilton study found that 17.5% of the CEOs who retired in 2004 were 55 years old or careers. younger. This is further complicated by the fact that the To be consistently successful generation after genera- job of CEO is getting tougher. Most companies are fully tion, companies need to take a longer-term approach to global. Competition is keener. Industries are consolidatidentifying CEO talent. For example, Jeffrey Immelt, Jack ing. Speed has increased. Shareholders are looking for Welch’s successor at General Electric (GE), was originally higher returns. Stakeholders are more active. Boards are identified as a potential successor in 1982—shortly after less patient. Welch himself was chosen as CEO. Immelt didn’t take over for almost two decades, but the fact that he had been REDEFINING BENCH STRENGTH identified in 1982 made a big difference when he took These factors make it even more important that CEOs and over GE in 2001. boards be proactive. And they can improve the chances that future CEOs will succeed by looking deeper in the organization to identify and prepare their full CEO supply Studies and surveys report that companies aren’t very chain of top talent. Every large organization could have prepared for CEO succession. A survey conducted by the the next seven CEOs on board today. A Booz Allen HamNational Association of Corporate Directors found that ilton study found that the average global tenure of CEOs nearly 50% have no CEO succession plan. Another survey is 7.6 years, and, because of natural age gapping, there from PricewaterhouseCoopers surveyed CEOs in 364 of are potential CEOs in every age and experience category, the fastest-growing companies in America, and of those down to the newly hired summer intern. That means there CEOs who are planning to step down during the next five are potential CEO candidates who are now 52, 48, 42, 36, 30, 24, and 18. It would never happen in that perfect years only 22% had given succession planning a lot of THE CHALLENGES AHEAD ARE CLEAR


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