Inside CEO Succession

As the demands from stakeholders for consummate leadership and good governance from a company's board of directors, its CEO, and its executive team increase, how the process of CEO succession is carried out has become more critical than ever before. Yet, over the past several years, a growing number of CEOs have failed early in their terms, often with devastating consequences to their companies and stockholders. By far the most common problem is a lack of ownership of the CEO succession process. Inside CEO Succession provides businesses, leaders, and boards with the strategies they need to execute their responsibilities with a heightened level of professionalism and ensure the sustained success of the companies they serve.

Written by Dr. Thomas J. Saporito, CEO of RHR International, and Dr. Paul Winum, Senior Partner of RHR International, the lessons of Inside CEO Succession are rooted in RHR's long-standing history of bringing expert knowledge, experience, advice, and counsel to the issues related to CEO succession. The culmination of RHR's 65 years of experience providing expert counsel to the boards of directors of hundreds of companies, it explains how ego, role-relationships, power, and human dynamics associated with relinquishing leadership, preparing successors, and ceding power and authority to other people create undetected problems in the succession process and ultimately cause many CEOs to fail early in their tenures.

• Distills RHR's 65 years of experience helping businesses deal with CEO succession into one practical resource
• Presents strategies to enable boards to understand their role in succession planning and how to source leadership that best fits their organization's culture and requirements
• Brings together business acumen and psychological insight to help readers better prepare for more effective CEO succession

To be successful, CEO succession requires a well-defined course of action that ensures that a number of highly capable candidates are ready to assume the chief executive position whether through an unexpected event or a planned transition. Inside CEO Succession is designed to help boards comprehensively manage that process and effectively sustain their company's profitability.

Dr. Thomas J. Saporito (Chicago) Ed.D., is chairman and CEO of RHR International. Widely recognized as an expert in CEO succession, he has specialized over the past 30 years in consulting with CEOs, boards of directors, and senior management on succession planning and top management leadership. He works closely with chief executives and senior management on accelerating business strategies by strengthening individual leadership and team-based performance. A former member of the NACD Blue Ribbon Commission on CEO Succession, his career has taken him throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Dr. Paul C. Winum (Atlanta, GA) Ph.D., is a senior partner with RHR International and serves as global practice leader–CEO Succession. He is a regular contributor to articles published in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Forbes. In 2007, he was awarded specialty board certification in Organizational and Business Consulting Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and was elected as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.