ABA Banking Journal - February 2012 - (Page 16)
ABA Community BAnking | MANAGEMENT SUCCESSION “Let it go, Joe” Management succession is only a plan, until it actually happens By STEvE COChEO, ExECUTIvE EdITOR A 16 | ABA BANKING JOURNAL | February 2012 Photo: gresei /shutterstock.com s seen in the original “Godfather” movie, Don Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, is sitting in the background while his son, Michael (Al Pacino), issues orders to the Corleone crime family’s chief lieutenants, Tessio and Clemenza. The subordinates clearly don’t like the way things are going. They address the old man, almost as if the new, young Godfather isn’t in the room. The old don has all but retired. He sees that the lieutenants need to accept the new order. “Do you trust me?” he asks. They nod. “Then be a friend to Michael.” In other words, get with the new program. Mind you, by that point, the old boss is more than happy to hand off. He’s just barely survived a hit, and is not in great health. Even in law-abiding companies like banks, management succession doesn’t always go smoothly. Departing leaders may not really want to go, in spite of factors like “regulatory fatigue.” Or they may have trou- ble watching someone else revise, or even trash, their strategies. Management succession can be found on nearly every conference program, and examiners have been asking for succession plans for years. But having plans and carrying them out well can be very different. Reality versus theory “I’ve never seen any bank score past a five or six, on a scale of ten, in carrying out succession,” says Jeff Gerrish of Gerrish McCreary Smith Consultants and ababj.com blogger. “There’s always going to be some friction. But how that friction’s going to be managed starts with the
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