Choose a New CEO Now

According to Dennis C. Carey, author of CEO Succession, even at the very outset of the tenure of a new CEO, he should already be planning for his own replacement.

Although this might seem a misplaced priority among the many urgent tasks a new CEO must accomplish when taking over a company, Dennis Carey believes that because succession planning requires team-work and input from many sources, when it is accomplished at the beginning the new CEO’s term it can create a feeling of trust in the new CEO and a re-establishment of confidence in the company.

Carey continues to explain that even if the new CEO is not interested in planning for his own replacement, the board should make it a priority anyway. No one knows the future, and the sudden loss of a company’s CEO is always a possibility, even if it is a small one. In at least two prominent cases, the CEO of Tenneco and the CEO of Frontier, both died from a brain tumor. Although this was a rare and unforeseeable tragedy, having already have planned for the CEO’s replacement would have made the trauma less traumatic.

Dennis C. Carey, Author of "CEO Succession"

In 2000 Dennis Carey authored the book, "CEO Succession: A Window on How Board Can Get It Right When Choosing a New Chief Executive". Co-authored with Dayton Ogden and Judith A. Roland, CEO Succession is an essential guidebook for anyone who cares about the quality of leadership in the corporate culture of America, and not just for board members or CEOs.

In CEO Succession Dennis Carey takes his readers on a guided tour of what the best practices are for empowering the corporate board of directors to be the force which ensures the consistent and steady flow of successful, enlightened leadership.

Dennis Carey, along with Dayton Ogden, draw on their own experiences working behind the scenes with CEOs and directors of the world’s most well-known and powerful companies. They also utilize personal interviews with corporate leadership so that the message of how corporate boards can implement the appropriate strategies and techniques to create a transparent planning process so that a seamless, smooth transfer of leadership of an organization can be accomplished.