Everybody talks about Succession Planning being a necessity for organizations but most of the organizations do not go beyond designing them. Execution of the process is something, which is rarely acted upon even if it is only the zeal and commitment that is required is absent. In most organizations, selection of CEO is taken as a part of regular recruitment process but it is not just one of the HR department's routine activities. The performance of the CEO determines the fate of corporations, whose financial health collectively decides the well-being of a country and directly or indirectly ours. This article tries to find the reasons behind the need for Succession Planning in today's global market, where due to the increase in magnitude at operational and market level, the organizational processes have become more complicated requiring greater expertise to run it and the increase in stakes cannot allow any disruption or vacuum at the top level.

On October 24, 2006, the core team of ICICI was reshuffled, a week before its Joint Managing Director Lalita Gupte retired. Chanda Kochhar, the Deputy Managing Director who led the bank's retail business, was given Gupte's portfolio of international banking; V Vaidyanathan, a Senior General Manager who had built ICICI's retail business alongside Kochhar, was elevated to the level of Executive Director.

At ICICI Prudential, the bank's life insurance joint venture, Bhargava Dasgupta was made the Executive Director so that Shikha Sharma, Senior General Manager, if and when required, can take a position in the parent company. The giant universal bank's Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath is pushing 58, and has just two years to go before his retirement. He seems to have made it clear whom he considers as potential candidates for the bank's top job.

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