A conversation keeps coming up with clients, both here and abroad.
A senior leader resigns or retires, and it turns out nobody planned for it. The board scrambles. A search gets rushed. The person who gets the job is often whoever can stop the bleeding fastest.
In other words, a firefighter.
Firefighters have their place. But when you hire for the crisis in front of you, you usually get a leader built for the next six months, not the next six years. Once the fire is out, the fit often goes with it.
So I want to share the opposite story. Over the past year or so, I’ve watched a CEO succession play out that was, for want of a better word, uneventful. That’s the highest compliment I can give it. (I’ve changed a few details to protect confidentiality.)
The setting
The business was a well-run financial services company within a larger group. Its CEO was heading into retirement, and the group’s leadership started thinking about succession long before there was any pressure to.
They understood two things. First, the business was performing well, so the risk wasn’t a turnaround. The risk was drift. Second, the next leader had to build on what worked, not tear it down to make a mark.
Start with the market, not the vacancy
We were asked to help, and the first ask wasn’t “find us a CEO”. It was “show us the market”.
So we mapped it. Who is leading comparable businesses in South Africa right now. Who is in the next tier and ready to step up. Where senior talent is moving, what it costs, and who might be open to a conversation.
In the end, the group appointed someone from its own network, a leader one of the executives had worked with before. Our data was used in helping the board make an informed hiring decision.
It meant they chose someone they knew with the whole market in view, not by default. Knowing the alternatives is what turns a familiar name into a confident decision. Sometimes a market map confirms what you already thought. Sometimes it shows you a gap. Either way, you decide on evidence rather than urgency.
In regulated financial services there’s a practical reason to start early, too. The pool at this level is small, and regulatory approval for senior appointments takes time you can’t compress.
The handover
This is the part that stayed with me.
The retiring CEO spent a good few months working alongside the successor. Not a handover pack and a farewell lunch. Real time together: introductions, the context behind past decisions, and all the unwritten knowledge that never makes it into a board pack.
That takes a secure leader. Someone more invested in the business doing well after they leave than in being missed. It also takes a group willing to budget for the overlap instead of treating it as a cost to trim.
The result? No gap, no drama, no panic appointment. Staff, clients and partners saw continuity, not a cliff edge.
What I took from it
- Start earlier than feels necessary. Twelve to eighteen months for a CEO role isn’t excessive. It’s realistic.
- Map the market even if you think you know the answer. Even when the successor is someone you know, the map is what tells you they’re the right call.
- Write the brief for the next chapter, not the last one. Don’t hire a copy of the person leaving. Hire for where the business is going.
- Plan the overlap and pay for it. A proper handover is the cheapest insurance you’ll ever buy.
- Honour the outgoing leader. How they leave sets the tone for how their successor arrives.
Succession planning isn’t a document sitting in a drawer. It’s a set of decisions made well before you need them.
So here’s my question for boards and executive teams: when did you last look at who’s next, and did you look beyond your own building?
I’d love to hear how your organisation handles this. What has worked, and what hasn’t?
Get in touch with me if you’d like to chat – theo@tsrecruitment.co.za
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