Succession Planning

Succession planning is a strategy for passing on leadership roles, often including ownership of the company itself, to an employee or group of employees. Also known as "replacement planning," it helps ensure a business can keep running smoothly after its most important people move on to new opportunities, retire, or pass away.

Succession planning involves evaluating each leader’s skills, identifying potential replacements both within and outside the company, and, for internal replacements, training those employees so they’re ready to take over when the time comes. It’s not a one-time event: succession plans should be reevaluated and updated each year, or whenever changes in the company call for it.

Businesses often create both an emergency succession plan, for when a key leader needs to be replaced unexpectedly, and a long-term succession plan, for changes in leadership that can be anticipated well in advance.