Succession Management

1
Succession Management Friend or FoeTime to
grow your own leaders

• Brian Mossor
• Vice President
• Leadership and Professional Development
• Comcast Cable Communications
• Comcast University

2
Demand for Executives in the new Millennium

• Baby Boomers are reaching the retirement age
• Increased amount of competencies expected of
  executives
• Increased level of performance expected of
  executives
• Growth, mergers and acquisitions are redefining
  executive expectations.

3
The Reality of the Talent Pool

• Many middle management jobs were downsized post
  .com and during the late 90s
• Most middle managers were forced to get more
  hands-on vs. working in a strategic role
• Business moved away from the Assistant role
  i.e. Assistant General Manager, Assistant Vice
  President
• Huge gap in the knowledge, skills and abilities
  between the executive and managerial levels.

4
Impact to the Business

• Headhunter fees
• Productivity
• Ramp up time
• Management turnover due to goal misalignment with
  the new person
• Low morale
• Quality impacting speed to market

5
Options The quick fix

• Hire from the outside
• Risky
• Difficult
• Expensive
• Hire from within
• Inexperienced
• Lack of strategic thinking

6
Result of No Action

• Retention of weaker employees will increase
• Top talent will vote with their feet due to no
  upward mobility
• Company will move into mediocrity
• Productivity will suffer
• Quality of products and services will suffer

7
Traditional Succession Planning

• Based on fixed positions
• Based on organization stability
• Vertical in nature
• Strategies remain fixed
• Run by Human Resources
• Blessed by Senior Management
• Nobody accepts responsibility for the
  outcome..therefore Human Resources gets blamed

8
Todays Environment

• Dynamic jobs that change with overall technology
  and are impacted by various business factors
• Rapid changes in strategy (speed to market)
• Consistent changes in the organization structure
• Promotion is defined in the context of
  responsibility assumed vs. the level (vertical
  and horizontal promotions)

9
Issue with Traditional Succession Management

• Focus is on the form and the system driving the
  outcome.
• Somewhat disconnected with the business strategy
  and direction
• Learning is intense but there is a disconnect
  between the learning and how it applies to the
  business
• Little to no input from participants and Senior
  Executives with regards to development
• Ownership of the effort is confusing

10
Results of Traditional Succession Management

• Only 30 Effective
• Dr. William Byham 2003 from the book Grow Your
  Own Leaders

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Another Strategy..Develop Succession Talent
Pools

• Ensure leadership and management development for
  all employees
• Develop 3 classifications for the Talent Pool
• Senior Executive
• Executive Top Management
• Middle Management

12
Succession Talent Pools

• Rigorous selection and inclusion process
  development of success profiles using position
  competencies
• Development is targeted to a specific business
  outcome
• Action Learning Assignment and real work
  assignments are provided to program participants
• Individual targeted outcomes for each person in
  the Succession Talent Pool

13
Succession Talent Pools

• Feeder programs for on-going development of
  future prospects
• Management of the program (by Human Resources)
  from a selection and placement standpoint
• Ongoing assessment and development process (by
  Learning and Development) is critical.

14
Development Options

• Enhanced organization knowledge
• Job / Team Assignments
• Short Term Assignments
• Professional Coaching / Use of 360 degree
  instrument
• Assessment Centers
• Executive Development

15
The Comcast Challenge 2003 to Present

• Assumption of ATT Broadband and other companies
  / holdings assumed 44,000 employees overnight
• Comcast Cable grew from 22,000 employees to
  68,000 employees (current)
• Business Challenges infrastructure upgrades
  system rebuilds
• Competition - satellite
• Customer Service and public perception
• Labor issues
• Execution of business launch of 14 new products
  and services
• Keep the current culture at Comcast through all
  of the above activities

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The Comcast Solution

• Use of Succession Pools
• Executive Leadership Forum Executive Level
• Fundamentals of Leadership Middle Management
  Level
• Re-defined Development
• Action learning assignments
• Group Projects
• Community Investment projects

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Partnership with Human Resources

• Human Resources and Learning and Development
  partnership
• Development of competencies
• Development of selection and inclusion process
• Execution of Development
• On-going management of the effort and placement
  of high potentials

18
Role of Senior Management

• Part of the development planning, execution and
  measurement process
• Part of the on-going program management
• Communication of business changes and focus areas
• Communication of business issues of perceived
  trends that impact the business
• Involvement in the assessment and placement of
  high potentials

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Developmental Activities

• Project related work that benefits Comcast
• Team projects and presentations
• Executive Sponsorship of projects
• Assessment of team members
• Reports to Senior Executives

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Results

• Over 200 employees from the Succession pools
  were assigned to either fill or backfill
  significant leadership roles
• Comcast launched 14 new products
• Subscribership grew
• Cash-flow increased
• Customer satisfaction improved
• Turnover reduced

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Results

• The 9th largest business acquisition in the
  history of American business is being viewed as
  one of the most successful

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Questions????