Governance · Succession and exit · Component
Leadership succession plan
Named emergency and longer-term successors for the chief executive, the chair and other roles the board holds itself responsible for.
The deliverable
What it is
Succession for the chief executive and the chair is one of the few decisions the board cannot hand to management. Codes place it with the board, often through a nomination committee, because the person who would otherwise name a successor is also the person being replaced.
The plan has two horizons. An emergency successor covers sudden absence and is needed whatever the long-term intentions; a planned successor is developed over years. Succession for roles below the executive team is workforce planning and sits in HR.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
Roles covered
The positions whose succession the board holds itself responsible for, and the reason each is on the list.
2 attributes: Position · Why covered
LearnSuccessor candidates
For each role, the emergency cover and the longer-term candidates, internal or external, with their readiness.
3 attributes: Candidate · Horizon · Ready in
LearnTransition arrangements
How a handover would run: the overlap, the outgoing holder’s future role, and how owners, staff and partners are told.
3 attributes: Overlap · Outgoing role · Last reviewed
Learn
Name the emergency successor first. It is the part of the plan needed with the least warning, and the part most often missing.
The other components in succession and exit
Ownership transition plan
How ownership passes to its next holders — family, managers, employees or a buyer — with the timing, valuation and financing that shape it.
LearnExit options review
The routes by which the owners could leave, what each would require, and what is being done to keep the preferred ones open.
Learn