Succession Planning
By Catherine Neville, Senior Client Director, Parkhouse Bell.
From Reactive to Ready:
Re-thinking Succession Planning
As we reflect on 2025, one theme has consistently surfaced as a priority in boardrooms and executive conversations: succession planning.
We expect this focus to remain just as important in 2026.
Against a backdrop of ongoing transformation, leadership scrutiny and shifting market conditions, the need for assured, future-ready leadership has moved from a “nice to have” to a strategic imperative.
Succession planning is not a one-off exercise or a contingency plan. Done well, it is a core component of effective people strategy and organisational risk management.
Yet despite widespread acknowledgement of its importance, many organisations remain reactive in their approach.
Research consistently highlights this disconnect. The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported in 2025 that more than a third of CHROs still see succession planning as a significant organisational challenge. Deloitte’s long-standing research echoes this: while 86% of leaders recognise leadership succession as urgent or important, only 14% believe their organisation executes it effectively.
86% of leaders recognise leadership succession as urgent or important, only 14% believe their organisation executes it effectively.
The difference lies in mindset. Organisations that treat succession as a proactive, ongoing discipline, rather than a response to resignation or crisis, are far better placed to ensure continuity, retain critical capability and future-proof leadership.
The hidden cost of reactive succession
When succession planning is delayed or deprioritised, risk accumulates. Leadership transitions become disruptive rather than seamless, and the consequences often extend far beyond a single role.
Leadership gaps slow decision-making, stall strategic initiatives and place disproportionate pressure on remaining leaders. Emergency hiring can be expensive and is rarely optimal, often requiring premium salaries and compressed assessment processes. At the same time, organisational knowledge has left the building with the departing leader, and the newly appointed leader needs time to absorb organisational culture, context and networks.
Perhaps most damaging is the impact on internal talent. High potential individuals disengage or leave when career pathways are unclear, eroding morale and weakening retention. Reliance on last minute external hires can also dilute culture and values, while in regulated or highly scrutinised sectors, leadership gaps can introduce governance and compliance risk.
In short, reactive succession planning exposes organisations to avoidable cost, instability and strategic drift.
The CHRO at the centre of succession
In many organisations, the CHRO plays a pivotal role in translating long term business strategy into people and capability plans. Effective succession planning depends on a deep understanding of where the organisation is heading, which roles are mission-critical to that future, and which capabilities will be required to deliver it.
Traditionally, this lens focuses heavily on internal succession. HR and talent teams identify high potential individuals, invest in development pathways and prepare future leaders with the skills, behaviours and experiences required to step up. When successful, this approach preserves institutional knowledge, strengthens engagement and materially reduces leadership risk.
However, internal succession does not always go as planned.
When internal pipelines are not enough
Developing senior leaders takes time, often several years.
In periods of market volatility, transformation or heightened scrutiny, that can quickly become a constraint.
Unexpected departures, shifts in strategy, technological acceleration or changing market conditions can all render an identified successor less ready or less relevant than anticipated.
The pressure this places on internal pipelines is significant. Organisations may find themselves with capable individuals who are far from ready to step up, or with succession plans that no longer align with the skills the future demands.
This is where a more assured, evidence-led approach to succession becomes essential.
Strengthening succession through external benchmarking
Organisations that complement internal talent pipeline development with external market insight gain a more resilient and informed succession strategy.
External insight does not replace internal development, it strengthens it.
Understanding the external market provides a reality check on whether internal successors are genuinely competitive, while highlighting capability gaps early, such as digital leadership, AI fluency, transformation experience or global scale. It also enables more accurate compensation and reward benchmarking, reducing the risk of losing high-potential leaders to the market.
External insight does not replace internal development, it strengthens it.
Crucially, external insight validates the strength of internal pipelines and provides contingency options for critical roles. It also sharpens development agendas, allowing organisations to calibrate internal talent against real world leadership benchmarks and prioritise future critical skills.
From an employer brand perspective, this approach signals rigour and ambition. It demonstrates a commitment to leadership excellence and positions the organisation as competitive, credible and forward looking in the eyes of both internal and external talent.
Ultimately, it supports more informed “build versus buy” decisions within strategic workforce planning, balancing long term development investment against the cost and urgency of external hiring.
How Parkhouse Bell supports proactive succession
As an executive talent research partner, our succession Planning & Assurance service is designed to help organisations move beyond reactive hiring and towards confident, evidence led leadership planning.
We work closely with executive teams, CHROs and talent leaders to identify, assess and discreetly engage high calibre external talent for critical roles, ahead of need. This proactive approach provides assurance in the face of unplanned exits, supports seamless transitions and strengthens internal succession by offering a robust external benchmark for comparison and calibration.
All talent maps, pipelines and market intelligence are owned by our clients, avoiding the repeated fees and inefficiencies associated with traditional executive search.
Our research-led methodology gives clients access to passive, diaspora and hard to reach talent pools, alongside real time insight into market trends, competitor leadership structures and emerging capability demands.
Importantly, all talent maps, pipelines and market intelligence are owned by our clients, avoiding the repeated fees and inefficiencies associated with traditional executive search.
Succession planning done well reduces risk, preserves momentum and creates optionality. If you would like to explore how Parkhouse Bell can support a more assured, future ready approach to succession, we would welcome a conversation.
Contact Catherine:
Case Studies: Succession Planning in Action
Succession planning is a strategic discipline that delivers real organisational impact when underpinned by foresight and informed market insight.
Below are examples from Parkhouse Bell’s work where we’ve partnered with clients to address leadership continuity, build resilient talent pipelines and strengthen capability at critical levels.
These case studies show succession planning in action across diverse contexts, from identifying and engaging high-potential leaders in emerging regions, to shaping executive pipelines, enhancing diversity in leadership, and supporting broader talent acquisition initiatives that ensure long-term leadership success.
Follow the links to explore how we’ve enabled organisations to navigate key challenges, validate internal talent against external benchmarks and secure leadership continuity that aligned with their strategic goals:
Nordic Leadership Success.
Strengthening succession readiness for a global organisation through targeted identification and engagement of senior leadership talent across the Nordics.
https://parkhousebell.com/case-study-identifying-engaging-talent-in-the-nordics
Executive Leadership Pipeline.
Supporting a complex, international organisation to mitigate leadership risk by building a future-ready executive pipeline.
https://parkhousebell.com/case-study-executive-leadership-pipeline
Improving Ethnic Diversity at Leadership Level.
Helping a major organisation strengthen succession planning by embedding diversity into senior leadership pipelines.
https://parkhousebell.com/improving-ethnic-diversity
Talent Pipelining & Succession Planning.
Designing a proactive succession pipeline to ensure continuity across critical leadership roles during a period of change.
https://parkhousebell.com/case-study-talent-pipelining-succession-planning
Executive Talent Acquisition.
Providing leadership assurance for a fast-growing organisation by combining external talent insight with internal succession priorities.
https://parkhousebell.com/case-study-executive-talent-acquisition
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