Passing the Torch: A Guide to the Succession Planning Process

Don’t wait for a crisis. Maintain business continuity with a succession plan.

One hundred percent of top global companies―and 72 percent of all companies―have a formal succession planning process. If your company is in the minority, a move in the right direction is easier than you may think. Authored by talent development experts Wanda Piña-Ramírez and Norma Dávila, this workbook highlights the importance of knowledge transfer in a time of fierce competition for talent, an aging workforce, and a critical shortage of people with the right set of skills.

Indispensable for the CEO as well as the small business owner, Passing the Torch presents stories from the boardroom to the family-owned bakery, and from the car dealership to the beach resort hotel. This is a book for all with a stake in maintaining the livelihood of a business and contains templates to guide you through the seven steps of the succession planning life cycle. In this book, you will learn:

why all companies, regardless of industry or size, must create a succession plan

how to create a business case to guide your company through the succession planning life cycle

how to identify key positions and retain key people in your company

Norma Dávila has dedicated her career to develop others in industries as diverse as banking, technology, pharmaceuticals, retail, utilities, automotive, and education. She is a hands-on consultant in organizational development and training who designs and implements change management and capacity building strategies. She prepares internal organizational capacity for different roles through coaching. Norma provides outplacement support, designs employee handbooks, and challenges operational processes among other services. Her consulting practice also includes leadership development and talent management programs. Norma is certified as Project Management Professional (PMP), and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). She earned her bachelor s degree in psychology at Yale University and her master s and doctoral degrees in psychology at the University of Chicago. Wanda Piña-Ramírez is an enthusiastic advocate of selecting and developing talent for business success, who has held various roles in industries such as hospitality, tourism, telecommunications, restaurants, petrochemicals, retail, waterworks, and government in United States, the Caribbean region, and Puerto Rico. Wanda is certified as Coach (CCC) from the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, as Practitioner in Neurolinguistic Programming and Applied Kinesiology by the International NLP Trainers Association, and as Human Resources Administrator by the Escuela Avanzada de Administración de Recursos Humanos y Legislación Laboral de Puerto Rico. She serves as advisory board member of the School of Business Administration of the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón. Wanda received the Training and Development Professional Award of the Puerto Rico Chapter of ATD in 2011.