THE UNEXPECTEDLY BIG, credit-market-related earnings hits taken recently by Citigroup and Merrill Lynch & Co. left those firms’ directors little choice but to oust CEOs Charles Prince and E. Stanley O’Neal, respectively, last month. Most glaring perhaps was the lack of adequate succession planning at both institutions. Merrill spent nearly three weeks under interim co-CEOs before plucking John Thain from NYSE Euronext; Citi remains without a permanent replacement for Prince.
一些上市公司d的职责更重要irectors than ensuring a proper succession plan is in place, but an October survey by the National Association of Corporate Directors shows that the Citi and Merrill boards were far from alone in their unpreparedness. More than half of the directors who responded to the poll said their boards lacked a formal plan. And of the three most important director priorities that the group identified in the survey — succession planning, strategic planning and corporate performance — respondents judged themselves least effective in dealing with succession.
一个特别困难的挑战：当CEO因为表现不满意而被迫外出时，董事难以转向内部候选人，这些候选人可能被与其前老板联系所污染的内部候选人。
“When there’s a crisis that involves the current state of the underlying business, it’s tougher for boards to consider sticking to the status quo,” says Elise Walton, a New York–based partner at Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm that has studied succession planning issues.
然而，通过多年度，审议流程选择的内部候选人最有可能实现无缝的领导力变化。沃尔顿公司最近研究了24家公司，在没有危机情况下进行一次努力管理，除了三个选择的内部高管作为其新首席执行官。
其中一家公司是麦当劳的公司，2004年必须取代其行政长度两次。当 - 董事长兼首席执行官詹姆斯坎帕福于2004年4月去世时，董事只花了六个小时的时间来推广查尔斯贝尔总统，他们长期以来一直以坎塔卢沃的继任者为主，同时发动主任主席的头衔。几周后，贝尔被诊断为结直肠癌。11月，董事会宣布将贝尔将被33年的麦当劳的退伍军人詹姆斯·詹姆斯·詹姆斯·斯金纳成功，他仍然是快速食品连锁的首席执行官。（贝尔于2005年初去世。）
当然，很多公司都竭尽全力追逐。10月，北方信托公司董事会击败总统弗雷德里克·瓦德尔将军首席执行官威廉·奥斯伯恩首席执行官威廉·奥斯伯恩，他们将担任主席，生效1月1日。该公司在命名他总统之前，该公司将沃德尔审议了奥斯伯斯的几个潜在的继任者之一2006年初，根据人力资源主要的摩托斯·莫森。一旦瓦德尔接管，他将开始审查内部候选人的过程，以一天成功他。识别和美容高管在组织的各级定期发生。
“每位经理都在这里，一直通过排名，负责确保他或她有一名继任者，如果有必要，他或她可以在一瞬间进入他们的鞋子，如果有必要，”莫伦说。
像这些人都可能占主导地位的无缝过渡，但是治理专家，招聘人员和董事会顾问说，他们比人们更常见。“公司越来越好，尤其是跨国公司，”波士顿咨询集团的合伙人Roselinde Torres表示，他们补充说，越来越多的公司承担了两次在整个业务中最有前途候选人的两年期甚至季度审查。“并且讨论往往涉及谁将取得首席执行官，而是整个执行团队。”
“Ideally, directors should have an idea of which 26-year-old managers might make a great CEO a few generations from now — and how to get them ready for that job,” says Joseph Griesedieck, head of recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International’s CEO practice. If enough young managers are properly groomed for the executive suite, even crises such as the ones that felled O’Neal and Prince shouldn’t prevent companies from having successors at the ready.