Succession Planning
Ensuring Continued
Success for Your Chapter
Ray Scott, CFPIM, CIRM
President, APICS – St. Louis Chapter
Succession Planning
What is it?
Why do you do it?
What do you do?
How do you do it?
When do you do it?
Who does it?
How do we implement a plan?
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Succession Planning
What is it?

A process to identify and develop people with the intent to fill
key leadership positions within the Chapter

Effective Succession Planning concerns itself with building a
series of feeder groups up and down the entire leadership
pipeline

The succession plan helps appoint new directors quickly in a
structured manner, allowing the Board to continue its
business without disruption, meeting any business
challenges that are encountered.
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Succession Planning
Why do you do it?

One of the key roles of any nonprofit Board is to continually
ensure that it has the right set of skills, talents and attributes
represented in its Board members.

There is an increasing demand for highly qualified,
dedicated, conscious, and aware professionals who truly add
value to the organization.

Failure to attract these people to the Board can lead to poor
results, lack of direction, disillusioned Boards, puzzled
stakeholders, and even the demise of the organization.
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Succession Planning
Ensures the continued success of your APICS Chapter.
Provides support for new and returning Chapter officers.
There must be a commitment to the process to help create
opportunities for future leaders.
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Questions To Ask About Board
Succession Planning

Do we have a formal approach to Board succession
planning? Does it cover multiple years?

Have we agreed on our required Board Skills, Talents and
Attributes?

Do we have agreed strategies for identifying potential
directors?

What role should our President have in Board succession
planning?

How do we attract high quality directors to our Board?
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Succession Planning
Each chapter has in common the same basic requirements and
expectations from APICS Corporate
Each chapter and the community it serves also has its own
unique advantages & challenges due to:
Locale
Membership
Industries served
Government
Other local factors
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Succession Planning
What do we need to do?

Focus on Policies, Procedures and Practices - Not
Personalities

Establish Succession Planning as a key Board activity

Succession Planning is the responsibility of the Chapter
leaders - not the members
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Succession Planning
How do we do it?
Key questions to be asked include:





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What are the skills, talents and attributes that
our chapter requires?
How well are these requirements being met by
our current leadership team?
What additional skills do we need to recruit
and/or develop?
What people or sources can we use to address
the gaps?
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Succession Planning
The APICS Chapter Strategic Plan can provide
guidance
The vision and mission of APICS
The mission of your Chapter (what you intend to
accomplish)
What is needed and feasible with respect to your
members
Key areas of focus for your Chapter
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Succession Planning
Once you know the way – how do we get
there ?
How do we attract the right people to our
Board?
.
Ideas – best practices…?
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Succession Planning
When do you do it?

Start planning now – it’s never too early

Do not wait until the end of your term

Succession Planning should carry through from year to
year
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Succession Planning
Who does it?
 The responsibility for succession planning often falls
to a specific Board committee. Typically, this
committee is responsible for:
 Developing a continuous list of eligible Board
candidates
 Interviewing potential candidates
 Recommending candidates to the full board
 Ensuring each new Board member receives proper
induction and training.
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Succession Planning
Who do we include in our search?
 Active members
 New members
 Highly motivated students
 Academic professionals
 Recently certified members
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Succession Planning
What do we do now that we have a plan?
 The President must be ready to step aside and allow
the successors to take over.
 Some chapters create a ‘Senior Advisor’ role. This
allows the new president to have a resource when
they hit a tough patch.
 In some chapters, the ‘Past President’ is a formal
board position that serves the same role.
 Continue to move Board members through different
roles to prepare them.
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Identify Needed Skills
Implement Training &
Development Activities
Recruitment and Motivation
Select High Potential
Candidates
Identify Key Positions and
Competencies
Foundation & Execution
Monitor & Evaluate
Sources of Information
Conscious Governance, Nonprofit Strategic Planning for CEO's, Executives, and
Nonprofit Boards
 http://www.conscious-governance.com
Tips for Efficient Succession Planning
 http://blogs.hbr.org/goldsmith/2009/05/change_succession_planning_to.html\
APICS
 http://media.apics.org/cbox/Chapter_Leaders/StrategicPlanningHandbook.pdf
Succession planning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succession_planning
How to do Succession Planning – Sherri Mazurek

http://managementhelp.org/staffing/succession-planning.htm
Form a business succession plan in seven steps - Gregory K. Amundson

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http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/1997/05/19/smallb6.html?page=all
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What questions or concerns
do you have?
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