Companies in India have approached succession planning in different ways and experience has shown that few have built strategies that encompass the three critical facets of the exercise: board succession, CEO succession and building a leadership pipeline.
Three categories of company exist in India : first, the widely held and professionally managed companies; second, the family-promoted/family-controlled companies, but with significant holding by minority shareholders; third, government companies where there is a significant minority holding. Owing to the differences in structure and functioning of these companies, succession planning strategies could differ, though the issues tend to remain the same.
The roundtable discussion detailed here addressed each of the above facets; it contains numerous insights as well as questions regarding the state of succession planning in India.