Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available. Taken narrowly, "replacement planning" for key roles is the heart of succession planning. Effective succession or talent-pool management concerns itself with building a series of feeder groups up and down the entire leadership pipeline or progression (Charan, Drotter, Noel, 2001). In contrast, replacement planning is focused narrowly on identifying specific back-up candidates for given senior management positions. For the most part position-driven replacement planning (often referred to as the "truck scenario") is a forecast, which research indicates does not have substantial impact on outcomes. Fundamental to the succession-management process is an underlying philosophy that argues that top talent in the corporation must be managed for the greater good of the enterprise. Merck and other companies argue that a "talent mindset" must be part of the leadership culture for these practices to be effective. Succession planning is not a new phenomenon. Companies have been wrestling with ways to identify, develop, and retain their talent for decades. So, why is succession planning suddenly popping up on every company’s radar screen? Today’s organizations are facing higher demands in a global market with the retirement of the Baby Boomers and the widening talent gap. The home-grown and paper-based succession planning that companies relied on in the past are no longer meeting the needs of today’s workforce. In order to achieve results, companies need to start with the basics, create a strong process and then invest in the tools and technology to instill a talent development mindset in their organization. This report highlights research findings on succession planning efforts in Best in Class organizations across multiple industries. Succession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. Through your succession planning process, you recruit superior employees, develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and prepare them for advancement or promotion into ever more challenging roles. Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly developed to fill each needed role. As your organization expands, loses key employees, provides promotional opportunities, and increases sales, your succession planning guarantees that you have employees on hand ready and waiting to fill new roles. Succession planning is a process whereby an organization ensures that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. Through your succession planning process, you recruit superior employees, develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and prepare them for advancement or promotion into ever more challenging roles. Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly developed to fill each needed role. As your organization expands, loses key employees, provides promotional opportunities, and increases sales, your succession planning guarantees that you have employees on hand ready and waiting to fill new roles. Effective, proactive succession planning leaves your organization well prepared for expansion, the loss of a key employee, filling a new, needed job, employee promotions, and organizational redesign for opportunities. Successful succession planning builds bench strength.
Develop Employees for Succession Planning To develop the employees you need for your succession plan, you use such practices as lateral moves, assignment to special projects, team leadership roles, and both internal and external training and development opportunities. Through your succession planning process, you also retain superior employees because they appreciate the time, attention, and development that you are investing in them. Employees are motivated and engaged when they can see a career path for their continued growth and development. To effectively do succession planning in your organization, you must identify the organization’s long term goals. You must hire superior staff. You need to identify and understand the developmental needs of your employees. You must ensure that all key employees understand their career paths and the roles they are being developed to fill. You need to focus resources on key employee retention. You need to be aware of employment trends in your area to know the roles you will have a difficult time filling externally.
Succession Planning - A 5 Step Process Step 1: Identify critical positionsCritical positions are the focus of succession planning efforts. Without these roles, the department or agency would be unable to effectively meet its business objectives. Workforce projection data or demographic analysis is essential in identifying risk areas. A risk assessment may also be conducted and compared to current and future vacancies to identify critical positions within your organization. Step 2: Identify competenciesA clear understanding of capabilities needed for successful performance in key areas and critical positions is essential for guiding learning and development plans, setting clear performance expectations, and for assessing performance. By completing the process of competency or position profiling within your organization, current and future employees gain an understanding of the key responsibilities of the position including the qualifications and behavioural and technical competencies required to perform them successfully. Step 3: Identify succession management strategiesNow that critical positions have been identified and have been profiled for competencies, the next step is to choose from a menu of several human resource strategies, including developing internal talent pools, onboarding and recruitment to address succession planning. Step 4: Document and implement succession plansOnce strategies have been identified, the next step is to document the strategies in an action plan. The Succession Planning: Action Plan provides a mechanism for clearly defining timelines and roles and responsibilities. Step 5: Evaluate EffectivenessTo ensure that the department or agency’s succession planning efforts are successful, it is important to systematically monitor workforce data, evaluate activities and make necessary adjustments.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. Its consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976 to develop and sell personal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977, and was renamed as Apple Inc. on January 9, 2007 to reflect its shifted focus towards consumer electronics. Apple is the world's second-largest information technology company by revenue after Samsung Electronics, and the world's third-largest mobile phone maker after Samsung and Nokia. Fortune magazine named Apple the most admired company in the United States in 2008, and in the world from 2008 to 2012. On September 30, 2013, Apple surpassed Coca-Cola to become the world's most valuable brand in the Omnicom Group's "Best Global Brands" report. However, the company has received criticism for its contractors' labor practices, and for Apple's own environmental and business practices. As of May 2013, Apple maintains 408 retail stores in fourteen countries as well as the online Apple Store and iTunes Store, the latter of which is the world's largest music retailer. Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an estimated market capitalization of $446 billion by January, 2014. As of September 29, 2012, the company had 72,800 permanent full-time employees and 3,300 temporary full-time employees worldwide. Its worldwide annual revenue in 2013 totalled $170 billion. As of Q1 2014, Apple's five-year growth average is 39% for top line growth and 45% for bottom line growth. In May 2013, Apple entered the top ten of the Fortune 500 list of companies for the first time, rising 11 places above its 2012 ranking to take the sixth position. Apple is the most successful startup company of all time, by market capitalization, revenue, and growth. Employee relations A class-action lawsuit alleging that the company suppressed employee compensation has been filed against Apple in a California federal district court. Litigation Apple has been a participant in various legal proceedings and claims since it began operation and, like its competitors and peers, engages in litigation (trying legal cases before the courts) in its normal course of business for a variety of reasons. In particular, Apple is known for and promotes itself as actively and aggressively enforcing its intellectual property interests. Environmental record Climate change and clean energy
On April 21, 2011, Greenpeace released a report highlighting the fact that data centers consumed up to 2% of all global electricity and this amount was projected to increase. Phil Radford of Greenpeace said “we are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old, polluting energy sources instead of the clean energy available today.” On April 17, 2012, following a Greenpeace protest of Apple, Apple Inc. released a statement committing to ending its use of coal and shifting to 100% clean energy. In 2013 Apple announced it was using 100% renewable energy to power their data centers, and overall 75% of its power comes from renewable sources. In 2010, Climate Counts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to directing consumers toward the greenest companies, gave Apple a score of 52 points out of a possible 100, which puts Apple in their top category "Striding". This was an increase from May 2008, when Climate Counts only gave Apple 11 points out of 100, which placed the company last among electronics companies, at which time Climate Counts also labeled Apple with a "stuck icon", adding that Apple at the time was "a choice to avoid for the climate conscious consumer". Toxics Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple because of various environmental issues, including a global end-of-life take-back plan, non-recyclable hardware components and toxins within iPhone hardware. Since 2003 Greenpeace has campaigned against Apple's use of particular chemicals in its products, more specifically, the inclusion of PVC and BFRs in their devices. On May 2, 2007, Steve Jobs released a report announcing plans to eliminate PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008. Apple has since eliminated PVC and BFRs from its product range, becoming the first laptop manufacturer to do so. In the first edition of the Greenpeace 'Green Electronics Guide', released in August 2006, Apple only scored 2.7/10. The Environmental Protection Agency rates Apple highest amongst producers of notebooks, and fairly well compared to producers of desktop computers and LCD displays. In June 2007, Apple upgraded the MacBook Pro, replacing cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlit LCD displays with mercury-free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free glass, and has since done this for all notebooks. Apple has also left out BFRs and PVCs in various internal components. Apple offers information about emissions, materials, and electrical usage concerning each product. In June 2009, Apple's iPhone 3GS was free of PVC, arsenic, BFRs and had an efficient power adapter. In October 2009, Apple upgraded the iMac and MacBook, replacing the cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlit LCD displays with mercury-free LED backlit LCD displays and arsenic-free glass. This means all Apple computers have mercury free LED backlit displays, arsenic-free glass and are without PVC cables. All Apple computers also have EPEAT Gold status.
In October 2011, Chinese authorities ordered an Apple supplier to close part of its plant in Suzhou after residents living nearby raised significant environmental concerns. In November 2011, Apple featured in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability, climate and energy policy, and how "green" their products are. The company ranked fourth of fifteen electronics companies (moving up five places from the previous year) with a score of 4.6/10 down from 4.9. Greenpeace praises Apple's sustainability, noting that the company exceeded its 70% global recycling goal in 2010. It continues to score well on the products rating with all Apple products now being free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants. However, the guide criticizes Apple on the Energy criteria for not seeking external verification of its greenhouse gas emissions data and for not setting out any targets to reduce emissions. In January 2012, Apple announced plans and requested that their cable maker Volex begin producing halogen-free USB and power cables. In June 2012, Apple Inc. withdrew its products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) certification system, but reversed this decision in July. Labor practices In 2006, the Mail on Sunday reported on the working conditions that existed at factories in China where the contract manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec produced the iPod. The article stated that one complex of factories that assembles the iPod (among other items) had over 200,000 workers that lived and worked in the factory, with employees regularly working more than 60 hours per week. The article also reported that workers made around $100 per month and were required to live pay for rent and food from the company, which generally amounted to a little over half of workers' earnings. Apple immediately launched an investigation and worked with their manufacturers to ensure acceptable working conditions. In 2007, Apple started yearly audits of all its suppliers regarding worker's rights, slowly raising standards and pruning suppliers that did not comply. Yearly progress reports have been published since 2008. In 2010, workers in China planned to sue iPhone contractors over poisoning by a cleaner used to clean LCD screens. One worker claimed that he and his coworkers had not been informed of possible occupational illnesses. After a spate of suicides in a Foxconn facility in China making iPads and iPhones, albeit at a lower rate than in China as a whole, workers were forced to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing that they would not kill themselves. In 2011, Apple admitted that its suppliers' child labor practices in China had worsened. Workers in factories producing Apple products have also been exposed to n-hexane, a neurotoxin that is a cheaper alternative than alcohol for cleaning the products. In 2013, China Labor Watch said it found violations of the law and of Apple's pledges about working conditions at facilities operated by Pegatron, including discrimination against ethnic minorities and women, withholding employees' pay, excessive work hours, poor living conditions, health and safety problems and pollution.
Tax practices Global taxes paid by ASI, 2009-2011[314] 2011 2010 2009 Total Pre-tax earnings US$ 22 billion US$ 12 billion US$ 4 billion US$ 38 billion Global tax US$ 10 million US$ 7 million US$ 4 million US$ 21 million Tax rate 0.05% 0.06% 0.1% 0.06%
Apple created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world. According to the New York Times, in the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes. In the late 1980s Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich," which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean. British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Charlie Elphicke published research on October 30, 2012, which showed that some multinational companies, including Apple Inc., were making billions of pounds of profit in the UK, but were paying an effective tax rate to the UK Treasury of only 3 percent, well below standard corporation tax. He followed this research by calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to force these multinationals, which also included Google and Coca-Cola, to state the effective rate of tax they pay on their UK revenues. Elphicke also said that government contracts should be withheld from multinationals who do not pay their fair share of UK tax. Charitable causes As of 2012, Apple is listed as a partner of the Product RED campaign, together with other brands such as Nike, Girl, American Express and Converse. The campaign's mission is to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015 (its byline is "Fighting For An AIDS Free Generation"). In November 2012, Apple donated $2.5 million to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy.
Human Resource Management of Apple.inc
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL; previously Apple Computer, Inc.) is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple software includes the Mac OS X operating
system; the iTunes media browser; the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivity software; Aperture, a professional photography package; Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and film-industry software products; Logic Studio, a suite of music production tools; and iOS, a mobile operating system. As of August 2010, the company operates 301 retail stores in ten countries, and an online store where hardware and software products are sold. As of May 2010, Apple is one of the largest companies in the world and the most valuable technology company in the world, having surpassed Microsoft. Established on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California, and incorporated January 3, 1977, the company was previously named Apple Computer, Inc., for its first 30 years, but removed the word "Computer" on January 9, 2007, to reflect the company's ongoing expansion into the consumer electronics market in addition to its traditional focus on personal computers. As of September 2010, Apple had 46,600 full time employees and 2,800 temporary full time employees worldwide and had worldwide annual sales of $65.23 billion Apple Computer is a company famed for its innovative strategic management. Apple Computer management strategy places great emphasis on ground-breaking new products and designs. Apple change management has proved successful over the years as the company has adapted to the changing market by constantly redefining the design and purpose of digital technology. The Apple brand is now synomynous not only with Macintosh personal computers but with innovations such as the iPod and the iPhone. The corporate culture of Apple Computer is one of optimism and belief. The founder and CEO, Steve Jobs, believes in funding and investment in new products and innovation even against the backdrop of a challenging economic climate. The following articles refer to Apple Computer and Apple Computer management. Use them to learn from the past of Apple Computer and the present of Apple Computer to build a successful future for you and your own organisation.
HR’s role in Apple’s success March 28, 2012 Occasional Contributors Employee Relations, Human Resources, Recruiting and Hiring, Training and Development
Image: www.apple.com/ca/ What is it about the Apple Store that’s just so great? Is it the super chic product line? The fact that you can tinker with just about anything in there? The super modern layout and design? All of those things are neat, sure, but I’d argue there’s something more—something you may not have paid as much attention to. Apple is running a seriously smooth operation in its retail stores. Each employee has a distinct role to play, understands that role, and does his or her part to deliver the level of service we’ve come to expect from this powerful brand. All of this requires serious alignment of brand, business goals and people processes. Finding the right people to work in the stores is half the battle. There are things that Apple’s retail arm does particularly well in organizational development—things any organization could learn from: P
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Know your roles! Tightly defined roles ensure that your employees knows exactly what he or she is expected to do, what others do and what other roles they could move into. Those boldly coloured T-shirts that Apple Store employees wear aren’t just for looks; they designate the distinct role each employee plays. From “Experts” who assess visitors’ needs, and direct them to the right place, to “Geniuses” who speak your language when something’s wrong with your precious MacBook, everyone in the store knows his or her place. Free up your leadership. When your workforce is deployed effectively—with minimal room in the process for bottle-necking—managers spend less time wondering who should be where and more time keeping the machine in shipshape. Apple Store employees are busy delivering Apple-grade customer service, so it’s up to leadership to maintain the same level of awesome day after day. They’re doing more than managing the operation; they’re coaching staff, leading
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training and driving sales. Make work meaningful. When your employees know that what they’re doing matters, it’s easier to inspire them to do their best. And no one appreciates this more than the employees staffing the stores, who are on the front lines of the customer relationship. Apple would be hardpressed to deliver their standard of service in retail unless their employees were satisfied with the level of employee engagement. Retain with growth opportunities. Many organizations are struggling to retain top talent, but how many offer a great opportunity for college grads to make something of themselves? Besides having a great job portal on their site with multiple open positions, Apple prides itself on promoting from within. For the 20-something “Expert” with a master’s degree who’s manning the entrance to an Apple store today (I could name more than one), that’s pretty encouraging. A lesson for your grinding gears Organizational development at this calibre doesn’t just happen, but it’s a necessary part of a thriving company culture like Apple’s. Getting to that level requires open dialogue between senior leadership and business partners and human resources and recruiting. You’ve already got Experts, Specialists, Geniuses and Creatives in your organization. It’s up to you to find them, engage them and let them know you want them to grow with you.
Apple's Human Resource Management Case Study
Recruitment Approaches Best Suitable for Apple: Apple's talent acquisition channels should aim to go beyond the traditional methods of making use of print advertisements and agencies and focus towards integration of newer and more broad-scoped methods of job boards and virtual social networks. Making use of referrals and targeting the most innovative skill-set based individuals in the topnotch colleges is also an excellent method of tapping into potential quality human resource. Referrals are an excellent mode of attracting new employees while allowing the company the additional benefit of aligning the on-board talent and the talent needs. Typically the referrals method is so effective that more than 25% of new talent in a company comes through this channel. Apple caters to an industry that relies on rapid innovation and timely new product development, feeding on a plethora of creative ideas to meet the demands of its customers world-wide. Also the company has adopted a “secrecy” policy towards safeguarding the execution of its core projects and processes in an attempt to maintain its competitive advantage. As the referrals method helps build channels and as Apple struggles to maintain an autonomous control over its core processes, this method will help Apple “mine” the networks of the most apt candidates with the most befitting work histories and networks. The use of private recruiting agencies can help Apple in the acquisition of leadership positions and positions that require diverse or concentrated specialties. The costs associated with this channel are however high. Still, the use of this method is recommended because Apple enjoys the advantage of “name recognition” making the talent acquisition process more productive (Silzer and Dowell, 2009). Recruiter Traits and Behaviors for Successful Recruiting Campaign Recruiters can play an essential role in managing and affecting the job choices made by the applicants particularly in key positions. Specifically in relevance to the recruitment campaign for Apple, the need for trained recruiters who are informative and trustworthy is essential. The targeted talent for Apple consists of highly creative individuals who are more prone to be putoff by a recruitment process with an overt emphasis on the “selection” process. Therefore, Apple must deploy recruiters who are able to build and retain the interest of the candidates. Also, pertaining to the technical specifications of the jobs requiring high skills and creativity; Apple must make the decision between recruiters that are human resource specialists or experts at a particular job. For senior and supervisory positions, I recommend making use of both types of recruiters, as a team, in order to gauge the competency, commitment and devotion towards the proposed job. For executive levels, Apple may employ its experts as recruiters. Studies reveal that candidates associate higher credibility to recruiters that are experts at particular jobs as opposed to HR specialists. In relation to the industry Apple caters to; the technical competency of the recruiter is a key factor affecting its recruitment output.
The Real Succession Plan For Steve Jobs: Apple Thinks Different With Apple University
This week's announcement of Steve Jobs' succession to Chairman puts the topic of success management back on the front page. When such a strong leader steps aside, how does Apple maintain its admired culture of innovation, execution, and business growth? There is more here than turning over the reigns to Tim Cook: Apple has a unique and powerful succession model built on its own experience in leadership, media, and innovation.
Steve Jobs is more than a leader - he has deep experience in the technology industry. First, Steve Jobs is more than a business leader. He embodies the essence of Apple - with vision, passion for design and product excellence, wrapped in a perfectionist personality with amazing business savvy. His ability to lead Apple comes not only from his leadership qualities, but also his deep experience in the technology industry. Over the period of his career (he is around my age so I watched Apple during every step of its life) he has out-innovated the pioneers (Nokia, Motorola, Google), out-executed the big guys (Microsoft, IBM - remember OS/2?), and out-flanked the operators (Dell, HP). Part of Jobs' leadership strength comes from his experience with technology innovation: Mac vs. Windows, NeXT vs. Sun, iPhone vs. Blackberry, and iPad and iOS vs. everyone else. This deep experience in technology and how to refine it for consumer delight has taken years to develop. Jobs' Leadership Philosophy and Style The second issue Apple faces in its succession strategy is what to do about Jobs' leadership style and philosophy. I have met many people who work at Apple, and I know that his force of personality is both revered and feared in the company. One Apple employee I spoke with mentioned that she was afraid to run into him in the elevator because if he asked her any questions she was afraid she might say something wrong and get fired.
This style of leadership has created a strong sense of execution and excellence at the company - but will also be hard to replace. During his long career, Jobs has developed a long list of philosophies about management, and these need to be incorporated into the future. How Succession Works We have looked at succession management among hundreds of companies, and our keynote research in this topic (High-Impact Succession Management®) developed the following maturity model.
As this model shows, companies evolve their succession strategies from "replacement charts" (these were originally created in World War 1 when soldiers were killed on the battlefield and the Army needed to know who would take a soldier's place) to a highly integrated process which enables people at all levels to move from role to role. Our research shows that fewer than 8% of all organizations have reached the top level in this model, so this area of business is very much a work in process for most organizations. What our research has found is that succession only works well when there is a clear understanding of the leadership traits and competencies needed at each level, and the process is sponsored by executives at the top. In the case of Apple, we know that the board and Jobs himself have been planning for succession for several years.
Apple's Succession Strategy for Jobs: Apple University
Publicly, we know that Apple has been grooming Tim Cook for several years. Not only has he already experienced the CEO role, he has been working directly with Jobs on the company's supply chain - so he has a deep understanding of the internal operations of the company. Behind the scenes, we also know that there has been a project at Apple for several years to "capture the essence of Steve Jobs management philosophies" for generations ahead. Under the title of Dean of Apple University, Joel Podolny (former Dean of Yale Business School) has been building a leadership curriculum around Jobs behind the scenes. While we have not seen the product of this work, several ex-Apple employees mentioned to us that this is a very strategic project designed to help Apple continue under Steve's leadership model even after Steve leaves the company. This is an example of Apple "thinking different." While most companies would look at competency models and hire executive recruiters to assess leadership candidates for succession, Apple is taking a page from our High-Impact Learning Organization® playbook. They are capturing the essence of Apple's executive performance and philosophy in digital form for leaders on into the future. We have been studying corporate universities for many years - and most highly revered programs (McDonald's Hamburger University, GE Crotonville, Accenture Q Center) are true learning institutions that bring together management philosophies, technical skills, and leaders to help all employees understand the organization and its principles and practices. In the case of Apple, I believe the fairly secretive Apple University has spent a lot of time and money capturing the experiences and principles of Steve Jobs for others to use in the future. According to Apple, the company founded Apple University in 2008 "to teach Apple employees how to think like Steve Jobs and make decisions he would make." In many ways it was built to solve the problem of "running Apple after Steve Jobs" - and setting in place the tools and information which helps Apple learn from his collective 30 years of wisdom.
As the graphic above shows (this was obtained from Onlinecolleges.net), the University is designed around capturing Job's collective learning and translating this into content, programs, and materials
which Apple employees and leaders can use long into the future. I had the opportunity to meet with one of Apple's prior heads of training, and she told me about Apple's highly focused approach to technology-enabled learning. For many years Apple has been using its own products (one of Apple's earliest market wins was its ability to sell computers for digital education) to build highly interactive learning solutions for retail and operations teams. When Apple iPhones are rolled out to AT&T and Verizon, for example, the company must instantly train tens of thousands of sales people within a few weeks. This type of training is done through advanced elearning, and this type of expertise has been refined within Apple for all the years that we worked with the company. Today Apple University is still a well-kept secret. But from what we have learned, I think it is one of the most innovative and exciting forms of succession management yet to be seen. Think different about your own leadership and how you can transfer skills and culture forward when your leaders leave. Apple once again is likely to show us the way. High-Impact Succession Management: Best Practices, Models and Case Studies in Organizational Talent Mobility is the first study to take a comprehensive view of succession management and examine what companies are doing at all levels of the enterprise – not just at top executive levels. The study was conducted in partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership, an internationally recognized provider of executive education. The study is based on an extensive survey of 220 senior HR leaders with responsibilities for succession planning and management; in-depth interviews with more than 25 senior business executives and succession management program managers; and a quantitative survey of more than 100 business leaders who provided input on their perceptions of the overall effectiveness of their company’s succession management strategies. Today, talent mobility – the ability to quickly and effectively reorganize and move talent into new roles and vacancies – is critical to business success. Without an integrated, top-to-bottom succession management program, your organization can’t make informed talent-related decisions. High-Impact Succession Management serves as a detailed resource for business and human resource executives involved in all aspects of succession planning and management. The study includes: P P P P P
A five-stage maturity model for succession management Ten best practices for maximizing business impact Actions to immediately improve current succession management processes A discussion of commonly used tools and technologies Case studies and examples from companies such as BASF Crop Protection, United Stationers, Knauf Insulation, and the The Kudelski Group P More than 80 graphs, charts, and tables Following are highlights of research findings: P More than half of research respondents said their companies implement succession management processes at only the most senior executive levels. P Only 12% of respondents said their companies’ succession management programs are integrated with talent management programs such as performance management and employee
development. P Fewer than 40% of respondents said their companies include mid-level managers and skilled professionals in succession planning initiatives; only 11% included first-line supervisors. High-Impact Succession Management is available at no cost to all Bersin & Associates research members. Non-members can purchase the study for $1,495.
5 Succession Planning Lessons From Steve Jobs
Leadership guru Carmine Gallo offers tips from the Apple CEO transition that your enterprise would be wise to learn. As the high-profile CEO of what many regard as America's--if not the world's--most dynamic tech company, Steve Jobs has influenced more than just computer design during his storied career. His idiosyncratic leadership style, hyperbolic presentations, and fiercely hands-on management approach have inspired the envy of executives and the fear of more than a few employees and competitors. Even as he steps down from the helm at the company he founded, he sets an example for those who would aspire to his level of leadership. Author Carmine Gallo has followed Jobs' career closely over the years, and penned two popular books, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, explaining how Jobs' leadership and management practices have made Apple the world's most valuable company. InformationWeek.com caught up with Gallo the day after Jobs announced his departure as Apple CEO to find out what insight enterprise execs can glean from Jobs' handling of this transition. Here are Carmine Gallo's five lessons from Steve Jobs' succession at Apple. Focus on the customer, client, user experience. "Above everything else, Steve Jobs really understands his customer," said Gallo. Throughout his terms as CEO of Apple, Jobs has bucked conventional wisdom in the industry and eschewed the demands and expectations of the industry--and sometimes even the most vocal consumers--to bring the best end-user experience, as he understood it at the time--to market. "When Jobs announced 99-cent music downloads, a lot of people thought it was crazy, because people were used to downloading music online for free," remarked Gallo. At the same time, the music industry balked at what it perceived as a rock-bottom price per song. "He stuck to his guns, and he was right." To Gallo, Jobs' apparent stubbornness is an outcropping of his deep convictions about user experience. "Users don't always know what they want," Gallo said. "Steve Jobs does, and he gives them what they want."
Jobs displayed the same mentality in executing his departure from Apple, enforcing his trademark secrecy and weathering anger from the investment community and Apple customers over his refusal to disclose many details about his health condition. Yet he consistently pursued his vision of user experience at Apple until the moment of his resignation. Ultimately, said Gallo, that deep focus on the user will be his legacy. Build a culture that transcends your leadership. Steve Jobs has developed such a cult following that he can seem impossible to replace. But in Gallo's view, Jobs has done a remarkable job of planning for his own succession by building a management team and company culture that embrace his vision for the company and the technologies it creates. "He surrounded himself with people who share his passion for design, user experience, and excellence," said Gallo. "He built a culture within the company that puts the user first." This move is critical to Apple's future success after Jobs steps down, and we'll soon see how well Jobs has done at selecting and training lieutenants who can carry the company forward. But for Gallo, the message to other leaders at all levels of business is clear: Great leaders build companies that can excel without them. Control the message, stay consistent. Apple has developed a reputation for extreme secrecy, and has taken more than a little heat for it at times. Every Apple product launch is preceded by months of rumors, about which the company refuses to comment. Steve Jobs' succession plans have been no exception, handled with the same tight-lipped secrecy as the launch of a new Mac. Of course, as with any anticipated Apple announcement, speculation and rumor have abounded, and most analysts predicted Tim Cook would emerge as the company's leader. But Jobs and company remained silent on the matter publicly, rolling out the transition of power with the kind of terse messaging that might accompany a new iPod announcement. Said Gallo, "Very few leaders really understand the extent to which they can control the message, so too often you have the CEO saying one thing, the PR department saying another, and managers within the company contradicting all of that." Leaders at every level need to reign in their words and get clear about their messaging for the good of the company, said Gallo. "I don't think it's necessary to be so secretive," Gallo said of Jobs' characteristic stealth. "But it's absolutely critical to control the message. When Apple got the Beatles on iTunes, the whole front page of their website was just a picture of the Beatles and the words, 'The Beatles. Now on iTunes.' Steve Jobs used the same kind of simple language in his resignation. He stuck to the central message he wanted to communicate." Transition proactively. Gallo observes that, when we look back, we see that Steve Jobs has been gradually handing off power and public exposure to other key personalities within Apple since news of his health woes first surfaced. "I noticed that, really, Tim Cook began doing a lot of the presentations for new product announcements. Phil Schiller and Jonathan Ive stepped into the limelight more," Gallo said. While the media cameras at any given product launch remained focused on Jobs, Jobs began presenting the other personalities behind Apple in a more concerted way, acclimating the company, its customers, and the media to the look and feel of an Apple product launch sans
Steve Jobs. Gallo is confident that Apple's new leaders now have ample preparation to lead the company forward. Choose people who can take over your duties, not your personality. It's become hard to imagine anyone but Steve Jobs leading Apple, but that perception likely doesn't match reality, according to Gallo. "There's no better pitch man than Steve Jobs," Gallo said. "But Steve has done a great job of assembling a management team that can lead the company in a way that's consistent with his vision." Pointing to the design aesthetic of Jonathan Ive and Tim Cook's apparent sympatico with Jobs' laser-like focus on user experience, Gallo sees the leadership traits of Steve Jobs distributed throughout the company's new leadership, rather than packed into the personality of a Steve Jobs imposter. "I think he's done as good a job as he can do at choosing people who can take over his duties," said Gallo. "But there's nobody else like Steve Jobs." At the 2011 InformationWeek 500 Conference, C-level executives from leading global companies will gather to discuss how their organizations are turbo-charging business execution and growth--how their accelerated enterprises manage cash more effectively, invest more wisely, delight customers more consistently, manage risk more profitably. The conference will feature a range of keynote, panel, and workshop sessions. St. Regis Monarch Beach, Calif., Sept. 11-13.
An Outsider's View of Apple's Succession Plan On Aug. 24, Apple, Inc. announced that Steve Jobs, its iconic co-founder, was resigning from his CEO role and assuming the chairmanship. Tim Cook, Apple’s head of operations, would become the new CEO. Investors took the news in stride, with a slight dip in stock price followed by a rebound. For those of us who think that this change might have been done in haste at a time when Apple’s hand was forced due to Jobs’ health, think again. To gain insight into Apple’s succession process, my firm, Farient Advisors, analyzed Apple’s history since it went public in 1980, and plotted the company’s market capitalization, certain noteworthy events, and of course, occupants of the top jobs. Please see the accompanying exhibit below (click to enlarge).
For many of us who grew up with Apple, we feel as though the company’s history is indelibly etched in our minds. After all, many of us learned how to use a computer on an Apple. We lived through the drama surrounding Apple for years, played out in the media by the corporate paparazzi, as it tried to find its raison d’etre. But the timetable I constructed refreshed my memory. It reminded me that neither Jobs nor Wozniak, the company’s co-founders, was CEO when the company went public. It further reminded me that within a few years of Apple’s IPO, John Sculley was appointed as CEO in an attempt to “professionalize” management, driving Jobs out of the company. These were not Apple’s glory days, as the company muddled along with a relatively flat market capitalization for more than a decade. But then, in 1997, Apple purchased Jobs’ company, Next, and brought him back from “exile” as interim CEO. One of Jobs’ first acts as CEO was to hire Tim Cook as chief of Apple’s worldwide operations, setting the stage for the company’s spectacular turnaround. Jobs and Cook proceeded to forge a strong partnership, and rescued the company from its death spiral, which took it from $11 billion in revenue in 1995 down to less than $6 billion in 1998. Jobs reinvented the company by practically disrupting the entire music industry and innovating wildly successful products. Meanwhile, Cook made the operations sing by streamlining facilities and the supply chain, all of which dramatically increased margins. Cook also had a test run as CEO in 2009 and then again in 2011 when Jobs was managing his health situation. Under their leadership, the company went from its nadir to a remarkable $100 billion today. So, the question is, “Did Apple do a good job of succession planning?” Judging from the result, I think the answer is, “yes,” although the process may not have been too pretty along the way.
Let’s look at the facts. Cook was an adjunct to Jobs for the better part of a dozen years, and he was test driven as CEO at least twice. In addition, Jobs will serve in the chairman role going forward, allowing the company to capitalize on his formidable genius and vision. So, it is no wonder that this transition turned out to be a yawner from an investor perspective. Many also are asking whether Jobs can really be replaced. The answer is, “Of course not.” He is one of a kind. But the better question is, “Does the current company, with $100 billion revenue, really need the same leadership as the company that grew from $10 billion to $100 billion?” And once again, the answer is, “Of course not.” The company will need more of Cook’s influencing and operating skills to bring the organization forward. So, ultimately, the question is, “Is Cook the right successor?” Time will tell, but the question underscores once again that this really is a game of succession, and not replacement. Robin A. Ferracone is the Executive Chair of Farient Advisors, LLC, an independent executive compensation and performance advisory firm which helps clients make performance-enhancing, defensible decisions that are in the best interests of their shareholders. Robin Ferracone is the author of “Fair Pay, Fair Play: Aligning Executive Performance and Pay,” which explores how companies can achieve better performance and pay alignment. She can be contacted at
[email protected].
