Death … Taxes … AND Succession Planning!

succession-planning-handoffThe sudden resignation of Ken Lewis from Bank of America highlights, yet again, the risks that family and other businesses take in failing to prepare for the inevitable succession of leadership.

A succession plan doesn’t mean you have all the work done and the perfect successor is comfortably waiting in the wings, although that would be desirable. It does mean, at a minimum, that you have an interim CEO in place who can hold down the fort while certain details are worked out and long term plans are implemented. Developing an emergency plan also gives the Board or family a chance to discuss these often thorny subjects without stockholder worries, employee hand-wringing or the emotional burden that comes with a fallen leader.

Often, this process highlight gaps within the family or board about the suitability of a particular successor. (more…)

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Job Creation? Not that I told you so … just saying ….

job-marketSorry, folks, but I do not see any meaningful evidence of a stimulus package, that vaunted $700B jump-start to the economy. I deplored it back then … I think “mud sandwich” was the term I used. Some of us pointed out that Congress’ own calculations showed that most of it would not be effective until 12-18 months elapsed … and now the evidence is in. I’ve also referred to it as another government boondoggle because there is such an obscure line of sight and accountability for the results of the program, that you could just be sure it wouldn’t have the desired results. If you created a program like this for your business, you wouldn’t have either a business or a job.

Even the NY Times editorialized recently about the lack of leadership on jobs. Here are some of the statistics they quoted which are sobering indeed; there’s more but you get the gist:

  • September was the 21st straight month of job loss – the longest unbroken stretch of losses since record-keeping began in 1939 – bringing to 7.2 million the number of positions that have been axed since December 2007. (more…)

Continue ReadingJob Creation? Not that I told you so … just saying ….