Succession Planning For The C-Suite — Cowen Partners Executive Search

4 min readNov 18, 2020

Corporate Succession Planning

Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing new leaders who can replace old leaders when they leave, retire or die. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available. Taken narrowly, “replacement planning” for key roles is the heart of succession planning. If you have watched the HBO show “Succession”, you know how messy the succession process can be without a plan. “Succession” follows a multi-billion dollar family media conglomerate after the CEO/ Founder unexpectedly falls ill and chaos ensues.

Your legacy is at stake, no business is too big or too small to plan for the future, and there is no time like the present to get started. — Shawn Cole, President

Why Leadership Succession Planning is so Important Today

Leaving an organization without a CEO or executive leader can expose vulnerability and reduce confidence in the company’s direction. These ripple effects may cost a company even more than the financial losses. Time is so important with today’s news cycles. The ability of an organization to have a seamless transition in leadership is important to ongoing business results. The transition from one CEO to another is a critical moment in an organization’s history.

Today’s employment market makes the recruitment of leadership more difficult than in years past. Why? The passive candidate pool makes finding the best talent more challenging. The recruiting process has to identify the right talent who are not actively looking for a job in most cases. More than ever, a properly designed and executed succession plan is at the center of any successful transition.

Succession planning is inevitable but with an experienced executive search firm it will be even more effective. Identifying, recruiting and hiring the next CEO will require a thorough, detailed executive search process. Do you have the time, skills and focus to do that? Cowen Partners can lead your efforts to fill your most critical leadership void.

Succession Planning Isn’t Just for the C-Suite Anymore “The talent gap is real, and businesses are feeling its crunch from the top of the employee pyramid all the way down to its base. Succession planning — for all positions — may be an important part of overcoming the skills gap, allowing businesses to grow.” — HR Dive

5 Easy Steps to a Winning Executive Succession Plan

1. Involve the Current Executive as Much as Possible

2. Create a Written Succession Plan

3. Conduct Regular, In-Depth Reviews

4. Review Internal vs External Candidates

5. Implement the Plan

CEO Departures are Unpredictable — Succession Planning is Necessary

This week we have been talking and writing about CEO Succession Plans this month. This week illustrates how real this is. WeWorks, Juul , eBay and hours ago Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina all had their CEOs depart over the last three days. Now to be fair, they are all for different reasons. Whether it is a loss of confidence by the board, a devaluation, or reports your product is a major health danger, the company has to make an unplanned leadership change.

This week’s examples are reminders that companies big and small are vulnerable and need to be ready for unexpected changes in leadership that can rock the company, culture and their stockholders. Whether you are a large Fortune 500 company or a $20m privately held business you cannot assume business as usual. Q4 is upon us and there will be plenty more leadership changes that will disrupt many businesses.

If your organization finds itself in this unplanned leadership departure or in a strategic succession plan, contact me to execute a plan to fill this critical void.

Succession Executive Search and Succession Planning

Succession executive search and succession planning is the board’s fiduciary responsibility to assure that shareholders / members continue to receive an uninterrupted and undiminished flow of value-driven products and services in the event of a planned or unplanned leadership transition.

We work with leading organizations across the private and public sectors. Our scale, scope, and knowledge allow us to address problems that no one else can. We have deep strategic industry expertise as well as geographical reach, and we are passionate about taking on immense challenges that matter to our clients and their stakeholders.

The transition from one CEO to another is a critical moment in an organization’s history. A properly designed and executed succession plan is at the center of any successful transition.

“Companies are suffering from a skills shortage, threatening any plans to expand operations in the wake of corporate tax cuts implemented this year, and in some cases, causing work-slowdowns,” Andrew Challenger, VP at Challenger, Gray & Christmas

CEO Executive Search Services

Guided by a client’s objectives we create an ideal CEO profile, against which we assess available candidates, also bench marking them against best in class CEO’s and research on the constellation of traits that correlate with success.

Analysis of required CEO competencies
Benchmark against best in class CEO’s
Establish an appropriate timeline for the search

While succession planning may not be limited to the C-suite anymore, it is the obligation of the C-suite to overcome. Ask about our succession executive search services and “CEO Succession Planning Guide”

If you want to learn more about our succession executive services, check out our industry-leading resources and see why Cowen Partners is a 5-star executive search firm serving clients in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, Los Angeles, and beyond:

Originally published at https://cowenpartners.com on November 18, 2020.