This document outlines 12 reasons for the growing importance of succession planning and management (SP&M) programs. It states that strategic success depends on having the right leadership in place and leaving leadership development to chance will not work. Additionally, downsizing has reduced the middle management ranks that traditionally trained future leaders. The document argues that SP&M programs are needed to systematically identify and develop the best successors, not just rely on managers choosing clones of themselves. SP&M can also help communicate career paths, establish development plans, identify replacement needs, increase the talent pool, provide opportunities for high-potential workers, and tap into organizational intellectual capital.

1. Succession Planning and
Management Programme
Dr Waheed Asghar
MA English, MBA,, PhD

2. Reasons for Growing Importance of SP&M
1. Strategic success is a function of having the right leadership.
Leaving the development of those leaders to chance and depending
on headhunters to find replacements for key people will not work in
this time.
2. Second, as continuing downsizing and other cost-containment
efforts have decimated the middle management ranks—a
traditional training ground and source of top management talent—
there are simply fewer people available to advance to the top ranks
from within.
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3. 3. When SP&M is left informal and thus unplanned, job incumbents
tend to identify and groom successors who are remarkably like
themselves in appearance, background, and values. They establish a
‘‘bureaucratic kinship system’’ that is based on ‘‘homeosocial
reproduction.’’
• To avoid these problems and to promote diversity and multiculturalism in the
workplace, systematic efforts must be made to identify and groom the best
successors for key positions, not just rely on managers to clone themselves.
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4. Some More Reasons
It forms the basis for…
(1) Communicating career paths to each individual;
(2) establishing development and training plans;
(3) establishing career paths and individual job moves;
(4) communicating upward and laterally concerning the management
organization; and
(5) creating a more comprehensive human resources planning system.
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5. Reason No.1
• Contribute to Implementing the Organization’s Strategic Business
Plans
• Strategic planning is the process by which organizations choose to survive and
compete
• Conduct SWOT analysis and make plans accordingly
• To implement a strategic plan, organizations require people with the right
talents.
• At least five different approaches may be used to integrate strategic plans and
succession plans
Reasons for a Succession Planning and
Management Program

6. 1. The Top-Down Approach
2. The Market-Driven Approach.
3. The Career Planning Approach
4. The Futuring Approach
5. The Rifle Approach

7. Reason No. 2
• Identify Replacement Needs as a Means of Targeting Necessary
Training, Employee Education, and Employee Development
• Training helps employees meet their current job responsibilities;
• employee education prepares them to advance to future responsibilities; and
• employee development can be a tool for individual enlightenment,
organizational learning, or competency acquisition

8. Reason No. 3
• Increase the Talent Pool of Promotable Employees
• the term talent pool may mean a group of individuals—rather than one
identifiable successor—from which possible successors for key positions may
be selected
Reason No. 4
• Provide Increased Opportunities for High-Potential Workers
• identify appropriate ways to accelerate HiPo* development and improve the
retention of talented people with potential.
(Exhibit 1.7)

9. Reason No. 5
• Tap the Potential for Intellectual Capital in the Organization
• Intellectual capital refers to the value of the human talents in an organization
• SP&M is thus important in making and realizing investments in intellectual
capital in the organization

10. Reason No. 6
• Help Individuals Realize Their Career Plans Within the Organization
• Organizations make a substantial investment in the training of their
employees.
• Employee performance may improve with experience as individuals advance
along a learning curve on which they master organization-specific and job-
specific knowledge.
• If they remain with one employer to realize their career plans, then the
employer benefits from their experiences.

11. Reason No. 7
• Encourage the Advancement of Diverse Groups
• There is a need to promote multiculturalism which involves increasing the
consciousness and appreciation of differences associated with the heritage,
characteristics, and values of many different groups as well as respecting the
uniqueness of each individual.
• Organizations have a responsibility to pursue diversity at all levels and SP&M
helps to do that reasonably.

12. Reason No. 8
• Improve Employee Morale
• Motivates others if employees are promoted from within
• Moreover, particularly during times of forced layoffs, promotions from within
can boost morale and can help offset the negative effects of ‘‘survivor’s
syndrome.’’3

13. Reason No. 9
• Improve Employees’ Ability to Respond to Changing Environmental
Demands
• One role of the leader is to shield the organization from ambiguity and
uncertainty so that people can do their work
• People groomed for key positions transform the ambiguity and uncertainty of
changing external environmental demands into vision and direction.

14. Reason No. 10
• Cope with the Effects of Downsizing
• Downsizing is a norm in corporate culture these days and middle managers
and professionals have been particularly affected.
• Although jobs may be eliminated, work does not go away.
• There is often a need to identify those who can perform activities even when
nobody is assigned special responsibility for them.

15. Reason No. 11
• Decide Which Workers Can Be Terminated Without Damage to the
Organization
• SP&M helps to identify performers and non-performers
• During downsizing practice, it helps to protect capable employees.
• A downsizing can have a positive benefit if it is used to reduce the ranks of
those who are not productive or promotable

16. Reason No. 12
• Reduce Head Count to Essential Workers Only
• In an age of fierce competition, processes must be improved to decrease cost
and reduce cycle time.
• Instead of filling a slot with a person, it more appropriate to find people who
can create the slot that fits them.
• Thus, head count will also shift to keep pace with shifting requirements.