Should a Crisis Change Your CEO Succession Plan?

Four questions to guide boards through the decision.

by

Dan Ciampa

by

Dan Ciampa

April 17, 2020

HBR Staff/Image Source/Getty Images

Summary.

Companies spend years figuring out the right process to choose a successor to the CEO, but the current pandemic and recession will cause many to rethink those plans. To guide them, boards should consider these four questions: Who should be in charge the crisis? When should an outside successor join the company? How is the crisis changing the company. And what can the board learn from the crisis?

In any given year, several hundred U.S. companies change CEOs, perhaps as part of an orderly retirement, because the incumbent CEO unexpectedly leaves, or because the board opts for new leadership due to performance concerns.

DC

Dan Ciampa (DC@danciampa.com) is a former CEO, an adviser to boards and chief executives, and the author of five books, including Transitions at the Top: What Organizations Must Do to Make Sure New Leaders Succeed (with David L. Dotlich, Wiley, 2015) and Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role (with Michael Watkins, Harvard Business Review Press, 1999).

Should a Crisis Change Your CEO Succession Plan?

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