I once chanced on a business article that said the legendary football leader Sir Alex Ferguson, has earned the slot to teach leadership at Harvard and the writer went on to add that he should not be made to teach succession planning. I thought this was very cheeky. But I couldn’t agree more, Sir Alex Ferguson took charge of Manchester United for 27 years. In his tenure as coach of United rose to become one of the greatest teams on earth, chalking 20 premiership titles, 11 FA cups, 3 Champions League a lot more cups you can talk about, and at some point the richest club in England and all the enviable you can talk about. The success of Manchester United is usable here.
And Sir Alex Ferguson steps down at the end of his service and all hell breaks loose, two managers in two years and United is just a pale shadow of itself. Business history both locally and internationally tells of businesses that have done well as well as faltered once the founders have left the scene or have simply scaled down their involvement. Let’s face it, if for some reasons you are not around for your business or you have simply scaled down, what would happen?
Growing up we had very prominent names that have whittled away once the owners were no more. Alternatively, our research has also taken us to some Ghanaian companies that have done so well and though their founders are not actively involved in the business, they are running excellently and actually growing. There is this waakye seller in Kumasi called (mango daa) which has been around for over 40 years. What has made this stand is succession planning.
Remember that there are uncontrollable factors, death, age, sickness and stuff that make succession very crucial. So we see succession planning as being a critical necessity for survival and longevity of your business. We see it good for both small and big businesses.
One thing these businesses who have succeeded at will tell you they have had an intentional plan for it. Good succession in businesses in businesses and roles at the workplace do not just happen it must be done.
If you haven’t taken intentional plans to build a successor, you may be shortening the life of your business or making it go through some avoidable turbulent times. It is also the same if you have no policy guiding succession planning guiding your company or your business. If you haven’t started the time to start succession planning is now.
Author: Yaw Antwi || www.ghanatalksbusiness.com
