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At first blush, it would appear there is no shortage of Succession Planning Advocates convinced in theory, the importance and benefits of corporate Succession Planning. In practice, however, real succession planning - or the overt lack thereof - runs juxtaposed to principle. The important question then is, “Why?” In November 2002 I wrote an article *The Art of Succession Planning in which the argument in favor of a detailed Succession Plan was put to rest. Clearly, the advantage of proper planning is no argument at all. But try telling that to some company owners or today’s high caliber CEOs. Those who rise to power, especially in large organizations, do so because they possess what’s known as, the Royal Jelly. Most are born leaders with unlimited high energy, charisma and an innate psychological need to win, control and dominate. Although it would be easy for some to cast aspersions on such a profile, the fact is, these attributes are the stuff integral to power and for most of us, what we admire in our leaders. Would it surprise anyone then, if those, predisposed to leadership and control, may find discomfort in succession planning? Simply said, any plan for succession, is a blueprint for the [call it anything you want] inevitable loss of power, control and prestige they worked so long and hard to achieve. After all, in the mind of a new CEO: They’re going to be there forever…and/or … If they leave, it will be by their choosing. No leader is perfect. They make mistakes. For them, the last thing they need is the added pressure of a motivated Heir Apparent waiting in the wings with a blueprint for a much anticipated and inevitable transition to power. Reining CEOs are not sacrosanct from the ambitions of the Would-be-Kings. The net result? No Succession plan. Where there’s a Will… There’s a Relative! Wish if we could that each successive generation spawn greater leaders than the last. Successful family-owned and operated companies face succession challenges on two fronts. Not every child of a great leader is blessed with the Royal Jelly. [Teddy Kennedy spring to mind?] More often the next generation, either because of, or despite having lived a life of privilege, find themselves bereft of the right stuff and unequipped to lead. A good model for this is the British Monarchy. [Hang in there Lizzy!] Succession planning for family-owned businesses can further be compromised when there are heir apparents from competing families. The right family heir to run the company may not [politically] be next in line and therefore succession planning is often avoided at all costs in order to circumvent a potentially divisive situation. Who will forget the bitter battle of two brothers for the McCain family frozen food empire? Beware the Motivations of the Succession Planning Architect! In ancient Rome, the Emperor Tiberius appointed Caligula to be his successor. A magnanimous gesture to say the least but not the real reason for his choice. Tiberius was more concerned about his legacy - fueled mostly by an unusually large ego. By appointing Caligula, it was his hope the people of Rome would grow to hate the new ruler, to see him as the miscreant he was. They did. In so doing and at the expense of the Roman people, Tiberius believed he had done himself a great service by indemnifying an unquestioned personal legacy of benevolence and superior leadership. Tiberius, however, didn’t corner the market on self-serving succession planning. For more contemporary examples we need only look at the current Prime Minister of Canada, The Right [Honorable?] Jean Chrétien and his now agonizing Long Good-Bye. Regardless of whether one voted for him or not, in a democratic society, the rein of any leader must eventually come to an end either by popular vote or for the good of the people. For dominant leaders, it is understood that stepping down is never an easy decision to make or to do. That said, the political winds of change are not all that transparent and it’s not unexpected for, in this case, Canadians, to count on a certain respectability or professionalism from their leader in the transition process. Sadly, the Prime Minister serves today as the quintessential example of bad Succession Planning. Newspaper headlines that clearly point out a now Lame-Duck-Leader whose agenda for the next year is bent solely on a self-serving legacy at the expense of his own party and the country as a whole, should, but hasn’t, deterred him. For example, few would argue the need for stricter environmental guidelines but what other than his legacy is served by forcing the thinly veiled K.Y.O.T.O. bill through parliament when even his own cabinet find flaws in it and the need for further debate. Moreover, Liberals and Conservatives alike openly agree; smiting his nemesis and obvious successor, Paul Martin, by first forcing him out of his cabinet post and then changing the rules for corporate sponsorship where it impedes Mr Martin the most, is nothing short of vindictive. In fact, limiting financial corporate sponsorship and then funding future elections with taxpayer’s money, I, as a taxpayer, could find it laughable if it were not so egregiously repugnant. Who benefits? Canadians? His Legacy? His ego? ...How Tiberiunesque! Bad Succession Planning! Bottom Line: Succession Planning is an integral part of what binds and brings balance to business, politics and even our personal lives. Like most disciplines, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Nevertheless, like death and taxes, it is unavoidable and will come one day on our watch. What still remains our choice is how we handle it when it’s our time… That too will reflect in our legacy. * For a copy of the article *The Art of Succession Planning send an email request to paul@success150.com Guest post by Paul Laberge, Developer Advisor, Microsoft Canada There is a sea change happening in the enterprise today – employees are deciding to bring the technology they are comfortable using at home to work and using it to be productive. Many people call this the Consumerization of IT, and in essence, it means that IT departments everywhere are scrambling to support devices and form factors they never had to before. IT policy is adapting to the employees, rather than the other way around which is a 180Âş turn from the way it’s been for years. Microsoft understands this sea change and is itself adapting to it. With Windows Phone 7.5, there are a number of ways the enterprise can support employees using Windows Phone devices, allowing employees to have a truly immersive consumer experience while at the same time allowing those same employees a number of tools to make them more productive than ever before. As a consumer, your employees and co-workers have made choices to bring devices they traditionally would have used and left at home and have consciously decided that these technologies and platforms will be there preference for being productive in the workplace as well. This is very different than what we have seen in the past and has caused IT departments everywhere to change their own support and management strategies. This change is known as the Consumerization of IT.
The answer for IT and the enterprise itself is not to fight this trend but to embrace it. The flexibility for employees to use the types of form factors and platforms they feel will make them more productive is empowering, making them happier and making better decisions for the business. Microsoft sees this revolution and has embraced it. Probably the best example of this is the new Windows Phone platform. Windows Phone presents a change in Microsoft’s mobile strategy. The consumer experience it provides is clearly front and center, being a smartphone platform that is fun to use and geared towards helping its users get the tasks they need to get done more quickly and with less indecision. In essence, Windows Phone is a “Glance and Go” platform – the user can see information quickly without even having to get into an app or service in order to make a decision on what to do. So how does Windows Phone make employees more productive?
But in order to understand the business case for extending your line of business applications to the phone, the business case for having Windows Phone as your mobile solution must be made. To do so, consider the following: Scenario: Employee ProductivityConsider the example scenario below. Michelle is a sales executive for a large company and needs access to email, calendaring and server-based resources on the go to do her job effectively. Everything in the story can be accomplished easily using Windows Phone.
Access to Outlook (email and calendaring) is an easy concept to understand. With Windows Phone, you have more access to the features of Exchange than any other mobile platform, including features like conversation view, rights-protected email and others. Windows Phone also supports multiple calendars, including multiple Exchange calendars as well as third party calendaring systems such as Google calendar. Office 2010 and Lync for Windows Phone are also incredibly powerful tools as you saw in the example above. Every Windows Phone includes Office 2010 (Excel, PowerPoint, Word and OneNote) that allows you to view and edit documents on the fly and synchronize those changes with central repositories such as the corporate SharePoint system, Office 365 (Microsoft’s cloud-based Office solution) and even SkyDrive, Microsoft’s consumer-based Office-in-the-cloud solution. Scenario: IT OperationsArmando is someone who works in your IT Operations department. The Consumerization of IT just made his job and the jobs of his department a whole lot more complex with the introduction of new devices that his team was not originally prepared to support. Windows Phone allows employees of the company the freedom of a great consumer experience while allowing Armando and his team flexibility in how to support these devices.
Without the need for extra licensing, knowledge of new mobile devices or new management tools, your IT department can effectively manage Windows Phone devices within the enterprise. Your employees get the best of both worlds as a result – a world class smartphone experience and productivity, and the ease of manageability for the IT department. Scenario: Corporate DeveloperOne of the main concerns of development departments in large organizations is maximizing the quality of custom-built systems and minimizing the time-to-market for those systems. Consider the scenario of Joe, the corporate developer:
The platforms and skills that your development teams in the enterprise use and know are transferrable to the development of apps on the Windows Phone platform. On the Next AlignIT Manager Tech TalkAs you can see from the above, Windows Phone goes beyond email and calendaring to deliver productivity to the enterprise. Mobile access to corporate applications like Office and SharePoint come out of the box, but line of business can be extended to the phone using skills and tools your infrastructure and developer teams already have. Join Ruth, Jonathan, and myself, Paul Laberge, for a discussion around how you can leverage Windows Phone to extend your line of business applications to the phone and enable a productive mobile workforce. Thursday, February 9, 2012 Watch LIVE >> | Add to Calendar >> About AlignIT Manager Tech Talk
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