Planning for who will be your company’s next CEO is one of the most consequential decisions for a business, but only one in four companies say they prioritize succession planning, Jane Bargmann, global head of the industrial practice at executive search firm Heidrick and Struggles, said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
That’s a concerning statistic considering the number of CEOs who either stepped down or were forced out just this year alone. Take as examples the CEO of Kohl’s who was fired earlier this year after striking an unusual deal with a vendor with whom he had a personal relationship and the mysterious resignation of Kroger’s CEO.
