The sad but undeniable truth is that surprisingly few organizations of any form, structure, region, industrial sector, or nationality get this complex, politicized, emotion-laden job right.

In the fall of 2011, when the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard announced the resignation of CEO Leo Apotheker and the appointment of Meg Whitman as his replacement, it marked the third time in less than a decade that the iconic but faltering company had reached outside its own ranks to recruit a new leader. In similar fumble two years earlier at Bank of America, CEO Ken Lewis abruptly resigned with no successor in place, leaving the bank’s board scrambling and further undermining the credibly and resilience of yet another demoralized enterprise.

Success and failure stories alike vividly underscore that the decision of who will lead an organization into a successful future is by far the most momentous one that directors, CEOs, or senior leaders will ever make. The unfortunate reality is that as many as 80 percent of leaders get this high-stakes decision wrong.

Now Noel Tichy, the noted leadership expert, bestselling author, and longtime trusted advisor to such leading companies as Royal Dutch Shell, GE, Intel, ford, Mercedes-Benz, Merck, and caterpillar draws on his experience working closely with CEOs around the world to provide a blueprint for leaders who want to join the elite 20 percent who get it right.

In Succession, Tichy reflects on his years working with countless CEOs, CHROs, and boards to provide firsthand accounts of outstanding successes and failures at succession planning and leadership transition. He explains a practical succession framework that can be applied to any organization, whether a multibillion-dollar conglomerate, a family business, or a nonprofit. He defines the roles and responsibilities of all the major players -

the incumbent CEO, the board, The CHRO, and the potential successors -

while providing specific tools to help leaders navigate the complexities of developing, selecting, and promoting the right people.

Tichy conducted much of his foundational work during Jack Welch’s tenure at GE, where he lead a full-scale transformation of the company’s famed Leadership Development Center while partnering with Welch, future Honeywell CEO Lawrence Bossidy, and other senior leaders in designing a new leadership pipeline for GE. Since then, Tichy has spent three decades conducting in-depth research, interviewing hundreds of executives, and advising companies on how to install succession pipelines that deliver. Now he examines best and worst practices and shares lesion from case studies such as-
Getting It Wrong at JCPenney- Rather than select a new CEO from within the company’s existing pipeline, the board’s decision to recruit Apple’s Ron Johnson, who was unproven as a CEO, sparked a tumultuous period during which JCPenney lost billions in profit and market cap -

before the board abruptly reversed course, fired Johnson, and rehired his predecessor.

Getting It Wrong Then Right at Ford- After Ford recruited Alan Mulally from Boeing to drive a global turnaround, he not only transformed

the struggling company repositioned it for the future but also painstakingly restored the internal leadership pipeline and groomed his successor, current CEO Mark Fields, from within.

Getting It Right at DuPoint- Since longtime company veteran Ellen Kullman seamlessly succeeded Chad Holliday in 2008, the legendary chemical company has successfully continued the transformation and repositioning of a more than two-centuries-old enterprise into a twenty first powerhouse.

Driving home his cardinal rule that successions not just about selecting the best person for the job but about building a continual process for growing transformative leaders at every level, Tichy persuasively positions succession planning and leadership development where they belong- at the top of every leader’s agenda.