MAKING A SUCCESS OF SUCCESSION PLANNING

 

 

 

How can we ensure the baton is passed to the correct person?

 

Succession planning is a reflection of your own corporate mortality. No-one likes doing it -- just like writing your own will it is always something that you put off. Insider or outsider success depends on many factors. If the business needs to radically change from the status quo then an outsider will tend not be trapped by the internal preconceptions of the existing senior management. If an outsider does not or cannot understand how the existing organisational culture needs to be retained,to a greater or lesser degree, or how it can be reformed, then perhaps an insider is the better choice.

It is dangerous to try and make too many hard and fast rules on who will be ultimately successful. Much of it revolves around assessing what needs to be done and in which way the organisation needs to move or not, as the case may be. What is the mission of the organisation in the short to medium to long term and which person can best deliver that mission and over what timescale?
It may be that we are looking at several people - some might be there in the short term to distill the organisation into a leaner place. Whilst others will take this task on once the initial organisational distilling had been completed and they will focus on longer term growth and development. We need to define the organisation's future mission and then identify how that can be achieved and who might be best placed to deliver it and how they will do that.

The mission for Manchester United was to consolidate itself into a major European champions League Force perhaps overtaking Real Madrid and Barcelona - whilst maintaining domestic dominance as well. If that is the case then would you appoint someone who had never achieved similar levels of success before or did not lead the organisation in a certain way? If this person had not achieved these things before was his potential future capacity to succeed in this new environment ever properly tested? Probably not.
In summary we need to know what the future mission of the organisation is and can the new insider or outsider deliver that future mission. Mr Moyes probably could not - but many people said that at the outset of this and they have been proved correct.