It’s easy to think of management succession as an attempt to identify someone to fill your shoes. But this can be the wrong approach to succession planning, particularly in growing businesses with changing leadership needs.
Succession planning should be linked in to your business strategy. For example, if your business will be expanding overseas, or growing by acquisition, these will be key factors in identifying and developing a suitable successor.
More broadly, management succession gives you an opportunity to think about the overall management structure and culture of your business. Businesses that have been built up by a dominant owner-manager may need to move towards a more devolved management style, with greater delegation and a stronger management team all round.
As part of succession planning you should identify any key values and business priorities you want the business to retain. Even after the management succession, you are likely to have a continuing emotional – and perhaps financial - attachment to the business.