November Issue

Welcome to my newsletter. Consider this a collection of insights and ideas from myself and the team at CEO.works.

For me, November is a time for introspection and gratitude. I am particularly fond of this time of the year because it's when my family and I put the busy year on hold and come together for Thanksgiving. We have this long-standing tradition of going around the table at Thanksgiving dinner and sharing what we are most grateful for, and I am always moved by what we share. Regardless of how our year went, we all have at least one thing to be thankful for: health, friendship, love, success, or perseverance. In truth, November brings an opportunity to take stock of the year's offerings: the fruitful times, the occasions that brought lessons along, and all the moments in between. I find this exercise essential in preparing for the future, staying grounded, and –most importantly– fostering hope, for these are the key ingredients for sustaining your vision.

There are many things that I am thankful for this year: health, growth, family, and friends. But I also want to take a moment to thank you for allowing me to share our ideas with you. When I founded CEO works, I never considered the possibility of reaching so many of you with my passion for Connecting Talent to Value?. It's been a wonder to see our ideas grow and expand beyond the limits of our firm. We couldn't have done it without you. So, thank you. Truly.?

Welcome Alex Kopitsas

Our firm continues to grow. We recently welcomed Alex Kopitsas to the firm. He joins us after a successful career at Johnson & Johnson, where he led strategic HR and business functions during his 22-year tenure. I am thrilled to have him as a part of our team and hope you'll join me in wishing him much success in his new role.

Succession Planning's Fatal Flaw

I enjoyed this article by Hein Knaapen on Succession Planning, and invite you to read the entire piece as I consider his ideas valuable in this arena, especially when you read them in the context of the recent events at Disney. Here's an excerpt:

What holds true for traditional talent management, in general, holds true for succession planning in particular. Both suffer from the same flaw:?a focus on supply rather than demand.

Talent management is about the uninterrupted availability of the right talent to drive continuous company performance; succession planning is specifically about having the right candidates for concrete vacancies. Rather than wait for vacancies to occur, we proactively run our venerated routines for identifying potential "successors" as a separate process inside HR. That process is disconnected from the business. Consequently, the focus is much more on the supply of people than on the evolving demands of the roles we are filling. While this reflects our very human tendency to think about people first, it also presents problems for business in today's highly dynamic environment.

Succession management, from a reductionist point of view, is about ensuring the continuity of talent in critical roles.?And yet continuity of talent is not equally relevant in every role.

Obviously, it does not look good—or even make sense—to not have a succession plan for your CEO, CFO, and CHRO roles. And so each year we prepare them. Outside the C suite, we have traditionally sought to fill vacancies in a hierarchical fashion. Seniority rules. That leaves us stuck in the past: any list of critical roles we come up with reflects the organization chart (which is, more often than we'd care to admit, outdated). Below these top layers of the organization, there exist many more roles deeply embedded in the business. We usually do not need to go through the hassle of planning for these: we simply start looking for candidates when an incumbent leaves.

I remember years ago leading the executive committee of one of the companies I worked at through a lengthy annual succession planning process. They would vent their personal views about people whom they had worked with for a long time and not give much consideration to the key deliverables of the roles to be filled. Succession conversion (i.e., the percentage of vacancies filled from the candidate list) was an appalling 35%. Not a result to be proud of.

This had me begin to question the use of a hierarchical, supply-based approach. First, it has no connection with what needs to be delivered at various times and places in the enterprise—and those needs can change rapidly. Businesses have to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. Role requirements have to evolve. The pace of succession often has to differ from one type of role to another and from one part of the operation to another.

Second, even in cases where a seniority-based succession plan is executed flawlessly, the company can still be left with many surprises. Portions of the business may stall or break down when all top leadership roles are occupied. "High-potential" candidates may fail. The ratio of successful appointments to unfilled vacancies may disappoint.

You can follow this link for the full article.

CEO.works | Europe Webinar

Have you had a chance to join one of CEOworks | Europe's monthly webinars? This month, Hein Knaapen will speak to the Global Head of People at KPMG International, Nhlamu Dlomu , and their discussion will be about CHRO onboarding. Don't miss "Insights for the New CHRO" tomorrow at 4 pm UK/5 pm CET/11 am ET. Here is the link to the event for more details.

I hope you are enjoying my newsletter. Feel free to leave me your feedback in the comments section below.

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