Succession Management at a Manufacturing Company in Chennai – An Empirical Study

Succession planning, sometimes called succession management is a process for preparing people to meet an organization's needs for talent over time. Succession planning is perhaps best understood as any effort designed to ensure the continued effective performance of an organization, division, department, or work group by making provision for the development, replacement, and strategic application of key people over time. This is important because it often takes years of grooming to develop effective senior managers. There is a critical shortage in companies of middle and top leaders for the next five years. Organizations will need to create pools of candidates with high leadership potential. Thus the development and implementation of leadership succession plan becomes important to have the business continuity at its best. This research paper focuses on the succession planning process, the effectiveness of various methods in identifying potential successors, the attributes to be considered in selecting employees and the effectiveness of various tools in developing executives for succession management program. Further, appropriate strategies are suggested for an effective succession plan.