Succession Planning is increasingly being viewed as an organizational imperative to ensure timely availability of qualified and competent candidates who can take up the reins of critical leadership positions upon the availability of relevant vacancies.  It is generally seen as a proactive measure that marginalizes ‘Replacement Planning’ and hedges against the risk of a ‘Leadership Vacuum’ to ensure a steady stride in achieving strategic goals and objectives.  Generally, key steps in the respective context are: The Challenge The aforementioned initiatives are often tampered by a heavily skewed focus on streamlining the process of primarily Succession Planning.  Normally, this is reinforced by relying on the efficacy of the following aligned functional processes for producing ‘suitable’ potential successors from the available talent pool: • Performance Management • Reward and Recognition • Training and Development Howev...