There can be multiple reasons that companies do not do effective CEO planning. A CEO can step down from his post at anytime and there couple be a multitude of reasons that lead to his departure. This can include but are not limited to illness, death, personal issues, poor performance, corruption, and not being able to handle the pressures of such a demanding role. This begs the question as to why more companies aren’t more prepared for this type of such an event which can be so crucial to a company’s future and current state. As with most things in life that are unexpected, most people do not plan ahead for them. The transition from one CEO to another is a critical moment for a company. A smooth transition is essential to maintain the confidence of investors, business partners, customer and employees, and provides the incoming CEO with a solid platform from which to move the company forward. A properly designed and executed succession plan is at the center of any successful transition. Thus it can be concluded that most companies do a poor job at succession planning because they don’t know how to develop a process that includes accurate leadership assessment. There can also be other reasons as we mentioned before, not having the insight to think further down the road, not being prepared, time constraints, and not wanting to create rumors within the office, stock market, and the public relations media by giving folks the impression that the CEO may be stepping down. These can all be factors that discourage the effort to have an effective CEO succession plan set forth.
The goal of the inside-outside succession model is to arrive at a deep understanding of the company's likely strategy and business challenges at the projected time of the CEO transition and figure out the skills and experiences that are likely needed of the new CEO based on the future needs of the company. Areas of development are recognized based on