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Allegiance trumps Talent! Known devil is a good successor in a promotor driven firm

 CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST! A popular slogan coined by Peter Drucker!

But in case that I mentioned below, it looks like Ego eats strategy for breakfast, without salt and pepper! Everyone else is just a spectator.
Nuggets of wisdom Kamal Karanth. Brilliant points and they are often true when the promotor is leading the org and culture with a tight fist! Just one person at the helm of affairs sets tone for just not finding a successor but also, how that successor must always pledge her/his allegiance to!
One leading Indian Biopharma company separated their Biologics business as a separate company just around the Covid pandemic. Hired CEO, a molecular scientist herself, from an innovation from a global pharma company. Came with her pack of other global leaders in functions like Manufacturing excellence, Quality, Digitalization, etc. Promoter was very excited and announced that, this firm will run like a start-up with sovereign funding from UAE coming and even a very speedy IPO in sight. But, within 2 years of this hubris, the CEO and her bunch of elites got fired. Founder Promoter addressed media and told that, sometimes, two women can't work together. Interesting, right? Shocked? Don't be!
Who succeeded to this CEO role? You will get the answer on little bit of Google search and by reading carefully what Kamal has mentioned above and in the podcast.
Would it be an exaggeration to say that much of the Executive Search industry TAM is based on failed succession plans? https://lnkd.in/ekZ2Fa8E

How do we choose our successors if we are likely to continue within the same enterprise?
Do we prefer successors based on who is more aligned with us than the role's needs? Would it be to because....

a)   To reward loyalty, don't we all like our own followers to be in key roles?
b)  Anyone more aligned to us or, say, our confidant in the seat gives us a bit of remote control of the future
c)   It also keeps the team we left behind more aligned with the new leader, as they know the new leader has our blessings

-Sometimes, we choose leaders based on the team they will lead? Let's say we have a stable team; we would choose someone who would cause minimal collateral damage. We always ask this question: If we promote X, will Y leave?

-Are there times when we promote leaders to ensure few people leave the team? It's the simplest way of asking some of them to leave?

-In some large enterprises, if someone is leaving a leadership role, does the management team sometimes eliminate or dilute the transitioning leader's influence in choosing their successor?

Listen to some of my flashbacks and see if they resonate with you. They're also on Apple and Amazon podcasts!

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