What can Jack Welch and a world renowned concert violinist teach law firms about leadership and succession?
Contrast the approach to succession management of Jack Welch and our present Government (or any government for that matter). The former chief executive of GE made succession his key priority during the last five years of his tenure at the company he devoted so many years transforming. No other imperative came close in terms of importance. Welchs great skill was to identify what really mattered in sustaining the success of one of the worlds largest and most profitable organisations. The campaign he embarked upon to select his successor was painstaking in its detail. On the one hand, he identified a number of star individuals within the Group and set about grooming them, and on the other, he personally set the performance bar for them in their current roles, from one year to the next, and monitored their progress over a prolonged period. He also involved his main board directors in the process at an earlier stage than was required simply by dint of good corporate governance. To begin wit
