Succession Planning: Build the Bench Before Anyone Knows You Need It

When Steve Jobs handed the CEO role to Tim Cook in August 2011, Jobs died six weeks later. Cook inherited one of the world’s most valuable companies with almost no runway—no public transition, no overlap, no road map. The succession worked only because Cook had quietly been running operations for years at Apple. The handoff was an emergency dressed up as a plan.

Recently, Tim Cook will step down from Apple and John Ternus – Apple's 51-year-old head of hardware engineering and a 25-year veteran will take over.

The transition, Apple said, follows “a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process” and was approved unanimously by the board.  

Do you have a thoughtful, long-terms succession plan in process at your business?  Most leaders avoid it.  The reason leaders avoid this conversation isn’t laziness. It’s ... read on.

Prudential and Women Presidents Organization 6/28/23 Chicago Event a Super Success!

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

We blogged about the Prudential + Women Presidents Organization 6/28/23 Chicago event here, under the theme of "Transitions: Strategies For Business Owners."  It was a super success!  Huge turnout virtually and wonderful, engaging group in person.

WPO CEO Camille Burns (moderator and pictured above at left), AJ Goehle, CEO, Luci Creative (second from left) Margo Jacquot, PsyD, CSADC, BCETS, Chief Care Officer & Owner, The Juniper Center, and Karen Hoffman (far right), CLU®, ChFC®, CASL®, Vice President, Advanced Planning, Prudential Financial discussed concerns and strategies to help ensure that ownership of your business is transferred smoothly when the time comes.  They also addressed approaches for transferring wealth to people and organizations that you care about.

Thank you to all who made the program a success:  Emot Farley (Prudential), Megan McDonough (WPO), Judy Walk-Pearce (WPO, and Giana Dominguez (WPO).

And of course a big thank you to the panelists for their fun and informative discussion and to all the people who attended virtually and in person!

Transitions: Strategies For Business Owners (Event 6/28/23)

Two WPO Chicago members, WPO CEO Camille Burns (moderator), and Prudential VP of Advanced Planning Karen Hoffman will discuss concerns and strategies to help ensure that ownership of your business is transferred smoothly when the time comes. 

Approaches for transferring wealth to people and organizations that you care about will also be discussed.

If you are a business owner, feel free to join us Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 4:00 PM CT.

To learn more and to register (virtually or in person), visit: https://www.women-presidents.com/news-events/events-programs/Prudential-and-WPO-Discussion-Panel