Corporations require "robust" succession plans

It is "insane" for international corporations to not have a "robust" succession plan that is reviewed by an involved boardroom, a human resources expert has suggested.

Alicia Whitaker, a human capital management expert, has urged organisations to implement three-to-five-year succession plans for key positions, reflecting the time it takes to develop internal candidates for future roles.

Highlighting the Bank of America's current problems in finding a chief executive to replace the recently resigned Ken Lewis, the HR specialist explained that talent management should now be a key element of corporate governance.

Ms Whitaker cited the short average tenure of chief executives in the financial sector, which stood at just three years in 2008, as indicative of a global corporate failure to appoint adequate chief executives.

Writing for the Huffington Post, she identified that important executive-level positions should have emergency back-up candidates.

She wrote: "[Boardrooms] need to agree on chief executive criteria moving forward, identifying the necessary experience and skills for future as well as current business needs."

Last month, the executive coaching specialist Marshall Goldsmith told the Harvard Business Review that companies should begin to focus their succession planning strategies internally.