Bloomberg Businessweek hit the nail on the head with a recent article about the anticipation around Microsoft's CEO choice. Now that the decision has been made, it's a prime moment for all those who followed the story to reflect on the amount of unnecessary drama and the number of false starts that swirled around this case as it progressed.
In a piece entitled "Don't Let the Search for a New CEO Drag On," writer George Klemp describes how the whole affair reflected poor preparation on Microsoft's part, saying that "it shouldn't have taken six months to replace [Steve] Ballmer with an insider."
"The drawn-out drama of Microsoft's CEO succession underscores what many companies—and their boards—fail to do: have a plan in place that ensures the availability of talent from within to take the key jobs at a moment's notice," Klemp notes. "That's Succession Planning 101."
But without the help of a recruitment consultant who has experience in this area, there's the possibility that companies simply won't know the average time for such a search and therefore not be ready to take the right steps for an efficient search. This can send the message that the business is badly organized if a search that could be finished shortly goes on for months and months.
Klemp wasn't the only person critical of Microsoft: Michael Liedtke spoke of how the company's recent business decisions may have turned others away, despite its recent profitability.
YES Partners can help your company gain ground when it comes to succession planning and earn the reputation of a company that's on the ball rather than chasing after it. Because we have a specific plan for helping you process candidates, we can lend organization to an area that could be sloppy.
