The Chief Executive Officer, Anabel Group, Dr Nicholas Okoye, has urged entrepreneurs and corporate entities in Nigeria to place premium on the issue of succession planning which he described as critical to the growth and development of an organisation.

Okoye who addressed a cross section of human resource managers on succession planning in Lagos at the weekend, lamented the rate at which companies in Nigeria that have foreign core  shareholders are de-emphasising appointment of Nigerians as Chief Executive Officers,  indicating lack of confidence in them.

Addressing participants at the forum, Okoye explained that the most  important challenge to business sustainability is leadership succession,.

According to him, leadership succession involves preparing the next generation of leaders for unit heads, departmental heads and executive  management. He noted that many companies had consistently tied succession to changes at the level of chief executive only.

“It is not proper to overlook succession planning at the level below the executive officers because the middle level staff would ultimately grow to the top level. There should be deliberate efforts to groom the future executives and the role of human resource managers is very strategic in this regard”, Okoye said.

Commenting on the attributes of a good employee, he identified loyalty, passion, competence and positive mental attitude as some important factors to observe in determining the future chief executive officers. 

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He noted that  some quoted companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange  with foreign core  investors had long stopped appointment of Nigerians as chief executive officers, indicating the need for our indigenous professionals to review what went wrong and the way forward.

Okoye also cited some notable Nigerian entrepreneurs whose business empires collapsed after the founders death.

“Great Achievers can be identified early in their professional life and so corporations that wish to preserve their growth and guarantee their success will identify these super achievers and place them on the path of leadership”, Okoye said.

He announced the  plan by Anabel to hold series of Boot Camps from this month till the end of the year  where participants  would be exposed to the fundamentals of  succession planning and case studies of companies that deployed succession planning for enhanced  corporate growth and those whose collapse were prompted by lack of succession planning.

A participant, Mr Sunny Enebi in his closing remarks stressed the need for executive grooming by human resource managers in order to ensure that only fit and proper staff occupy strategic vacant positions in the event of vacancies in their respective organizations.