The Importance of Succession Planning

Gary Laitner and Douglas Badder, both of whom specialize in corporate law in Faegre Baker Daniels' London office, authored an article for Real Business on the topic of succession planning. While many at the helm of large corporations get bogged down with the daily intricacies of running a successful business, having a plan in place for a CEO exit is usually not top-of-mind.

In their article, Laitner and Badder stress that without an agreed-upon succession plan, a company can find itself in trouble with internal power struggles, erratic share prices for public companies and, most damaging of all, harm to a company's reputation. They suggest that early planning is key to good preparation and that companies should carefully consider whether to appoint internal or external candidates to the position.