The Hindu Business Line : Succession planning

The wise manager picks successors, based not on whom he likes and feels most comfortable with, but on who is right for the very different future circumstances, demanding different skills.

THE CONTINUING drama over Dr Verghese Kurien's fraught relationship with his anointed successor Dr Amrita Patel is sad, yet offers an object lesson for all managers.

Acting with foresight, for planned succession within their organisations, is a worthy and well-acclaimed mantra of human resource (HR) management. Still, with the best of intentions, things do not always turn out the way an outgoing CEO might hope. In this case, the difference is over basics — the very character of the co-operative movement's icon.

Some reasons why a hand-picked successor seems to spurn good precedent and even turn against a former sponsor and mentor are universally valid. For a start, times do change unpredictably. A Chairman who took over, say, IBM, Toyota or ITC in the 1980s would have lived in a vastly different world and market place, from a person groomed by him (or her) would today.

Competition, environmental concerns, regulations, emerging economies, and worldwide adoption of free market economics and the astonishing power of instant communication — all these would hugely affect the size and shape, not to mention ownership itself, of businesses. Portfolios have changed dramatically and, hence, what it takes to succeed in the specific industry would have altered, even the definition of the industry.

These fundamental compulsions must drive all strategy (be it in HR or products) at any time. Responses, therefore, have to be quite different in a new era. This is not to gainsay the value of grooming a successor, but merely warn us of its dangers. One method strongly advocated by multinationals is to keep a shortlist of likely candidates for every key job — and not depend on one. "What would the company do if you went under a bus?" is a droll way to phrase this.

Good leaders prepare not just one potential successor, but two — hoping the latter would not be called upon too early. The wise manager picks successors, based not on whom he likes and feels most comfortable with, but on who is right for the very different future circumstances, demanding different skills. Commonality in values and beliefs, of course, must be safeguarded.

And that usually is the rub!

S. Ramachander

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