The article reads: “For a CEO taking office after the abrupt departure of a predecessor, lining up a successor might seem the least important item on a formidable list of must-dos. The replacement CEO must get control of the situation that caused the demise of the previous CEO, win over demoralized employees and unhappy investors and put a plan into place. He or she must build a team to tackle the problems and take action. Yet planning for a successor can go a long way toward reassuring employees and investors and steadying the company. And if the new CEO isn’t interested in the task, the board should be.”

Later, the executives were asked: what were the candidates’ best and worse decisions? What are their strongest and weakest leadership qualities? Whose capabilities are the most suited to meet the company’s strategic needs? Whose temperament, passion and work style best match the company’s culture and strategy?

Dennis Carey and his co-authors explained that while covering the story, the media focused on the wrong things. They wrote: “What was missing in the articles and blogs is perhaps the key lesson for corporations: a company would do well to establish parallel approaches to succession. Insiders often get the corporate top job- in fact, more than 80% of the current Fortune 100 CEOs were selected from within the companies’ ranks- yet the high turnover among CEOs is testament to the frequency with companies pick the wrong insider. A set of parallel approaches allows a company to gather comparable data about internal candidates, with each process filling in the information gaps left by the other.”

In an article, he explained:

“CEOs need to learn what they can from others who have acquired, largely by trial-and-error, insights into how to run a company. We believe there is an immense and largely untapped body of knowledge on these subjects. It resides among the fraternity of experienced, seasoned and retired CEOs who has been working in the trenches for many years. They may well be the best ‘executive education’ resource for current and future CEOs.”

On his website CEOsuccession.com, Mr. Carey presents some guidelines that are essential in any company:

“1. Have a strong, involved board

2. Continually expose top management to the board

3. Encourage the next generation of CEO prospects to get early experience with outside boards, the media and financial community

4. Create an active executive or operating committee so more executives get exposure to an overview of the company, its strategy and issues

5. Do succession planning on an on-going, real-time basis

In an article, he wrote:

“A company would do well to establish parallel approaches to succession. Insiders often get the corporate top job- in fact, more than 80% of the current Fortune 100 CEOs were selected from within the companies’ ranks- yet the high turnover among CEOs is testament to the frequency with which companies pick the wrong insider. A set of parallel approaches allows a company to gather comparable data about internal candidates, with each process filling the informational gaps left by the other.”

“In working with leading companies, we have developed a window on how boards can get it right when closing a new chief executive,” Carey says. “This is the critical fiduciary responsibility of the board, ensuring the steady flow of effective leadership in corporate America.”

“Whether by sudden tragedy, poor performance, merger, takeover or simple retirement, every CEO will leave his or her position. The corporate boards that take on a systematic predictable and transparent process in choosing the next leaders of the organization build stronger cultures, clarify the company’s strategy and deliver value to all stakeholders, including employees,” Carey said.

He said: “A company would do well to establish parallel approaches to succession. Insiders often get the corporate top job- in fact, more than 80% of the current Fortune 100 CEOs were selected from within the companies’ ranks- yet the high turnover among CEOs is testament to the frequency with which companies pick the wrong insider. A set of parallel approaches allows a company to gather comparable data about internal candidates, with each process filling in the informational gaps left by the other.”

A review on their work stated that the authors “offer the insiders’ prescription for success in succession. Directors will savor the advice on how to pick the right CEO; executives will relish the advice on how to be chosen; everyone will delight in seeing how it’s really done at companies from Cigna and Delta to GE and Sunbeam. Graphically narrated by search specialists at the top of the game, CEO Succession tells how to put the right leadership in place for results.”

He explains that “on top of the general problem of harnessing the energies of a company comes the simple fact that a CEO may be very unfamiliar with some core responsibilities. Most new CEOs have never chaired a board meeting. Some may never even have attended one. Most have never had to forge a working relationship with a board-selected ‘lead director.’ Outside the boardroom, issues such as advertising, human resources, the press, Wall Street analysts, mergers and board member recruitment, which consume large amounts of a CEO’s time and attention, are activities that most senior executives below the top job may have dealt with on only a very limited basis.”

Succession planning has become an important task in corporations throughout the nation. Carey and Ogden explain techniques and strategies to plan a smooth transition of leadership when the situation arises, by sharing personal interviews and experiences from their own work with CEOs and directors around the world. The book features a close examination of companies like Hewlett-Packard, GTE, Mellon Bank and Metropolitan Life.

The book lays out the succession process in a simple way: create a succession schedule; be sure to develop leaders at all times, at all levels of management, ensure a good relationship between the Board and the CEO; and take note of talented internal candidates for CEO and other leading positions.