PLAN FOR SUCCESSION SUCCESS

SUCCESSION PLANNING: PLANNING FOR SUCCESS
OR SMART TALENT MANAGEMENT?
PROF. DR. DIRK BUYENS

© Vlerick Business School
CONTEXT: SUCCESSION PLANNING = DEAD
2
Companies offer jobs, not careers anymore.
Managers have a shorter “expiration date” then
they used to have.
In “Raplex” environments ‘LT people planning’
makes no sense.
Hipo management programmes create lots of
frustration.
Europe is in it’s “fall season” of it’s lifecycle.
Prof dr Dirk Buyens - Vlerick HR Day 2013

CONTEXT: SUCCESSION PLANNING = ALIVE
Managing people = all about managing
expectations.
Higher mobility leads to more “successors” needed.
In “Raplex” environments you need to convince
people about “Zig-Zag Careers”.
No tool or practise has been more popular over the
past 3 years than the 9-box.
The biggest HR challenge for the next 10 years to
come = to “succeed” Babyboomers.
Lack of successful succession is the main reason
why (family owned) SME’s don’t survive the 2nd or
3rd generation.
3 Prof dr Dirk Buyens - Vlerick HR Day 2013

CONTEXT: SUCCESSION PLANNING = THE
HEART OF THE MATTER
Why:
1. HR 2020 is not about people but it is about
“Talent Supply” and “Talent Supply Chain
Management”.
2. Succession planning ≠ not planning people for
jobs, but it is about fostering Talent in a B6 way.
3. Succession planning = Educating consistent
successful BEHAVIOUR.

INVEST IN TALENT
Strategy Definition
B
5
Buy Acquire new talent by recruiting individuals from
outside or from other departments or divisions
within the organization.
Build Develop talent through training, education, formal
job training, job rotation, special assignments, and
action learning.
Borrow Partner with consultants, vendors, clients, and
suppliers outside the organization in arrangements
that transfer skill and knowledge.
Boost Move the right people through the organization and
into higher positions.
Bind Retain employees with high growth potential and
valued talent.
Bounce Remove low-performing or under-performing
individuals.
B
B
B
B
B

HR MANAGING AS ART, CRAFT, SCIENCE
HR
Manage
ment as
a
Practice
ART
Vision
creative insights
CRAFT
Experience
practical learning
SCIENCE
Analysis
systematic evidence
7

STYLES OF HR MANAGING IN TERMS OF ART,
CRAFT, SCIENCE
ART
(vision)
CRAFT
(experience)
SCIENCE
(analysis) Dispirited Managing
Narcissist
Insightful
Cerebral
Calculating
Engaging
Tedious

RESULT: 5 ENTRENCHED MYTHS WERE
UNDERMINED
1. Successful leaders in a turbulent world are bold, risk
seeking visionaries
2. Innovation distinguishes 10X companies in a fast-
moving, uncertain and chaotic world
3. A threat-filled world favours the speedy: you are
either the quick or the dead
4. Radical change of the outside requires radical change
on the inside
5. Great enterprises with 10X success have a lot more
‘good luck’
9
Collins & Hanson, Great by Choice

FINAL SET OF 10X CASES
10X Case
Dynastic Era of
Study
Value of $10,000
Invested
Performance
Relative to
Market
Performance
Relative to
Industry
1. Amgen 1980-202 $4.5 million
24.0X
the market
77.2X
its industry
2. Biomet 1977-2002 $3.4 million
18.1X
the market
11.2X
its industry
3. Intel 1968-2002 $3.9 million
20.7X
the market
46.3X
its industry
4. Microsoft 1975-2002 $10.6 million
56.0X
the market
118.8X
its industry
5. Progressive
Insurance
1965-2002
$2.7 million 14.6X
the market
11.3X
its industry
6. Southwest
Airlines
1967-2002 $12.0 million
63.4X
the market
550.4X
its industry
7. Stryker 1977-2002 $5.3 million
28.0X
the market
10.9X
its industry

SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION (AMUNDSEN) VS
TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION (SCOTT)
11
Extract from the Washington Herald,
March 8, 1912

OBJECTIVES
SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION
1 goal only: to be the first
to reach the South Pole
(e.g. took only 10
photographs and once
they’d reached the Pole)
 all energy and focus
went to that goal
TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION
Reaching the South Pole
And do some scientific
exploration (cf. 2000
pictures)
 2 goals made expedition
more complicated

TRANSPORT
Dogs, dogs and more dogs
(52 dogs)
Sledges pulled by dogs were
shaven off to weigh less
When dog died meat was used
for men and the other dogs 
only 11 dogs returned to base
camp
No need to unlash-relash
sledges because of use of
canisters
Dogs could eat penguins and
seals
Skiing (all Norwegian
experienced skiers)
Ponies, motor sledges and
men
Motor sledges broke down
and no engineer to fix them
Ponies not suited for walking
in the deep snow
Sledges that were pulled by
men, were overloaded and
had to be unlashed and
relashed every time the
made camp
Men carried food for ponies
with them
Walking
14
SOUTH POLE EXPEDITION TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION

BASE CAMP, ROUTE MARKING AND DEPOT
LAYING
Base camp was 96 km
closer to South Pole
New route
Route marked by cairns,
flags and empty food
canisters
Depot laid out every
degree of latitude and
marked with a line of
bamboo flags
Base camp better located
for geological exploration
Route already explored by
previous expedition
Route marked by walls
made at lunch and
evening stops to protect
the ponies
Less depots laid out: for
every 5 depots laid out by
Amundsen, Scott had laid
out 2
16

© Vlerick Business School17
Amundsen's route had never before been taken, but it put his starting point 60
miles closer to the Pole than Scott's.

NAVIGATION
Amundsen used
sextant, very light and
simple to use
Prepared navigation
sheets that simplified
calculations
4 out of 5 team
members were qualified
navigators
Scott used theodolite,
rather heavy and requires
more arithmetic
No prepared navigation
sheets
Only 1 navigator
18

Scott’s men

CONCLUSION
Amundsen was prepared for the
worst, whereas Scott only had a
thin margin for error

LEVEL 5 AMBITION
1. Fanatic discipline
2. Productive paranoia
3. Empirical creativity
4. Why would anyone work with these CEOs
5. Answer: they are ambitious for a purpose
beyond themselves, achieving something
great that is ultimately not about them

Victory awaits him who has
everything in order – luck people
call it. Defeat is certain for him who
has neglected to take the
necessary precautions in time; this
is called bad luck.
Roald Amundsen, The South Pole

DIFFERENT BEHAVIOURS,
NOT DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES
They’re not more creative
They’re not more visionary
They’re not more charismatic
They’re not more ambitious
They’re not more blessed with luck
They’re not more risk seeking
They’re not more heroic
They’re not more prone to making big, bold moves

10X LEADERSHIP
24
Fanatic
DISCIPLINE
Productive
PARANOIA
Empirical
CREATIVITY
Level 5
AMBITION

10XERS DISPLAY THREE CORE BEHAVIOURS
1. Fanatic Discipline: 10Xers display extreme
consistency of action – consistency with
values, goals, performance standards, and
methods. They are utterly relentless,
monomaniacal, unbending in their
focus on their quests.
25
Fanatic
DISCIPLINE
Productive
PARANOIA
Empirical
CREATIVITY
Level 5
AMBITION

Fanatic
DISCIPLINE
Productive
PARANOIA
Empirical
CREATIVITY
Level 5
AMBITION
2. Empirical creativity: When faced with uncertainty,
10Xers do not look primarily to other people,
conventional wisdom, authority figures, or peers for
direction; they look primarily to empirical evidence.
They rely upon direct observation, practical
experimentation, and direct engagement
with tangible evidence. They make
their bold creative moves from a
sound empirical base.

Fanatic
DISCIPLINE
Productive
PARANOIA
Empirical
CREATIVITY
Level 5
AMBITION
3. Productive paranoia: 10Xers maintain
hypervigilance, staying highly attuned to threats and
changes in their environment, even when – especially
when – all’s going well. They assume conditions will
turn against them, at perhaps the worst possible
moment. They channel their fear and
worry into action, preparing,
developing contingency plans,
building buffers, and maintaining
large margins of safety.

Freely chosen, discipline is absolute
freedom
Ron Serino

WHAT DO THESE BRANDS EDUCATE
CONSISTENTLY?

...OR THESE?

FIRE BULLETS, THEN CANNONBALLS
A “fire bullets, then cannonballs” approach better explains the
success of 10x companies than big-leap innovations and predictive
genius.
A bullet is a low-cost, low-risk, and low-distraction test or
experiment.
Our 10X cases fired a significant number of bullets that never hit
anything. They didn’t know ahead of time which bullets would hit or
be successful.
There are two types of cannonballs, calibrated and uncalibrated. A
calibrated cannonball has confirmation based on actual experience –
empirical validation – that a big bet will likely prove successful.
Launching an uncalibrated cannonball means placing a big bet
without empirical validation.
Uncalibrated cannonballs can lead to calamity.

CONCLUSION: LESSON 1
35
Educate the 3
core
behaviours:
1. Fanatic Discipline
2. Empirical Creativity
3. Productive Paranoia

36
There is only
one way to
prepare
successfully
for the 20 Mile
March.

37
Fire bullets…
…then
cannonballs

38
Succession
planning is all
about
educating
consistent
successful
behaviour

39
Strive for
level 5
ambitions

40
As an HR
professional; are
you an Amundsen
or a Scott?
Be an Amundsen!

PLAN FOR SUCCESSION SUCCESS

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PLAN FOR SUCCESSION SUCCESS