CEO Succession: A View From the Boardroom
A recent bulletin by the SEC acknowledged that "One of the board's key functions is to provide for succession planning so that the company is not adversely affected due to a vacancy in leadership." And yet, according to new studies by RHR International, more than half of today's directors don't know when their CEO plans to step down, and just 6 in 10 are prepared for an emergency succession.
Over the past five years, RHR has conducted a program of research with input from the directors of top companies in a variety of industries to determine how board members view the vital process of CEO succession and what factors contribute to good and poor outcomes. The firm's research summary report, "CEO Succession: A View from the Boardroom" describes the results of the studies combined with the collective insights of its consultants over six decades.