Family&trends

Succession cannot be planned: it is built between risk and responsibility

by Bernaldo Bertoldi *

24 January 2026

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4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Succession is considered one of the main weaknesses of family businesses,familyandtrends recently pointed out that large American companies are proving that it is a difficult process for everyone and perhaps more difficult for companies that do not have an owner who cares about the long term. In a article in the Harvard Business Review entitled 'Where succession planning fails' some interesting insights for family capitalism emerge.

Succession is a taboo subject even in large listed companies: 'In my 10 years on the board,' says an independent director of an NYSE-listed company, 'the only time we talked about CEO succession was when there was an actual succession going on right then. Of course, it is an SEC regulation that boards of listed companies actively discuss CEO succession, but there are many SEC regulations...'. A lot of time is spent conducting talent reviews and discussing suitability for future roles and then nothing is done about it, in the words of one manager, still quoted in the Harvard Business Review article: 'We did a sophisticated assessment and then did nothing about it... because of a lack of real commitment to succession planning'.

It is done out of compliance, as another top manager quoted: 'How can we make succession planning evolve beyond mere staging? ... we seem to have the same conversation over and over again as the years go by'. Those who lead the company have no real interest in moving beyond talk, as one CEO candidly stated: 'I will feel comfortable talking about successors for my role the day I decide it is time for me to leave'. Evidently by that time it is too late.

In summary, it is important to spend time on succession plans and talent matrices, but even more time needs to be spent on actually developing, preparing and training people for future roles.familyandtrends wrote about a Harvard case where a manager states: 'If you are a good leader, you develop good people. It's like winding a spring: you wind people up and then there comes a time when you have to release the spring; you have to let the person go... Every June and every January you see a bunch of springs going off, because people are moved, we give them opportunities, significant changes of responsibility. That's what creates the constant desire to renew, because nothing is static, nothing. Don't take anything for granted'. That manager was Sergio Marchionne and his ability to create leaders is demonstrated not only by the rush of so many to want to be included (more or less deservedly) in the 'Marchionne Boys' but above all by the fact that when he passed away suddenly in less than a day successors were designated ready for each of his roles (FCA, CNH, Ferrari, EXOR, SGS) and that, even today, many of the companies he led have that culture and are led by people who grew up with him.

How to do it? After evaluations: take action.

'Every June and every January' after the management review sessions, Marchionne assigned new responsibilities, new roles and challenging projects; he assigned, for example, the launch of the new 500 to be done in eighteen months to a 30-year-old Luca De Meo: 'They completed the task,' Marchionne said, 'because they didn't know it was impossible. My job was to make sure they didn't do anything stupid and to protect them from the corporate culture of 'naysayers'.

Pursuing opportunities with significant responsibility in difficult contexts is the most effective way to develop talent: each new task should include an increasing and controlled risk of failure. If everything always goes well, it means that there was no real challenge.

This may be, for example, the responsibility for a partial profit and loss account, where the result counts and not just the actions; the development of a new initiative, a new market, a diversification, where the vision counts, the creation of alliances and/or the management of uncertainty; the management of a critical situation with a customer, a supplier, a partner, an associate where one can demonstrate the ability to manage conflicts by finding positive compromise solutions; of participation in the organisation's top-level dynamics, never as an auditor but with initially supporting roles, where one can demonstrate the ability to think strategically and manage complex dynamics; of a position of responsibility in the restructuring of a business area or in an acquisition, where one can demonstrate the ability to make key decisions in pressure situations with exposure to the outside world of the organisation.

Step by step and by acquiring and proving each time, one arrives at moments of planned temporary substitution of the role, where the person currently covering it leaves complete autonomy over decisions in certain areas and for defined times in order to demonstrate the ability to 'hold the role'. Sophisticated modern and American managerial technique, perhaps, certainly what Italian entrepreneurs have been doing, at least, since 1959 when Pinin Farina wrote to his son Sergio: 'From today you have to manage on your own. I am leaving on a world tour and will be away for six months. Don't write and don't look for me: you are the master now. When I return we will see if the company still exists and if you are the man I hope you are'.

(Lecturer in Family Business Strategy - University of Turin - bernardo.bertoldi@unito.it)

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Succession cannot be planned: it is built between risk and responsibility

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