CASE STUDY:SUCCESSION PLANNING

PRESENTED BY ANAND S. AWARSHIVAKUMAR

SUCCESSION PLANNING

SUCCESSIONB PLANNING

FACTS OF THE CASE : Bank of the Sierra was founded in 1978 and it is headquartered in

California. It was founded by Jim Holly with a group of 17 investors. He is also

President/CEO of the Bank, Ken goodwin is Chief financial Officer of the Bank who had been

with the Bank since its inception. In early 2005, after 28 years of leading the Bank, it

was felt necessary by Jim to identify and develop

talent to ensure leadership continuity

for all key positions in the organisation.

CASE STUDY : SUCCESSION PLANNING

BANK OF THE SIERRA

CASE STUDY : SUCCESSION PLANNINGBANK OF THE SIERRA

LEADESHIP CLASS OF 2005:The Executive Board identified 18 candidates from within the Bank

based on their past performance.To know more about his future leaders, Jim called on the Preditcive

Index (PI) to provide insight into their behavioral drives as well as

their natural management and leadership strengths.Based upon the evaluation of each individual’s experience,

performance and PI profile the Board identified 7

employees with greatest potential to lead the Bank.This group of 7 employees was referred to as the

“Leadership Class of 2005”.

CASE STUDY : SUCCESSION PLANNINGBANK OF THE SIERRA

EVALUATION PROCESS:

To measure the leadership potential as individuals and as a team,

several initiatives were developed over a one year period.The major challenge for the group was to revamp the commercial loan

processing system.The evaluation process consisted of the following: At the end the year, the “Leadership Class” would be evaluated not only on the success of the project but also on how well they interacted with each other. Each team member would evaluate every other team member on their performance. The team could unanimously vote to dismiss any team member who was not making any contribution. The Executive team met once a month during this year-long training and evaluation project to discuss the performance of these key individuals.

CASE STUDY :SUCCESSION PLANNINGBANK OF THE SIERRA

RESULT OF THE PROJECT:The project was launched but with some discord.Early in the project it was found that six of the seven members were highly dominant and trying to control the team’s direction.But the seventh member gathered the team. He was able to make the team members recognise each person’s behavior style and the impact it was having on the productivity of the team.The group project was a success with the help of the Predictive Index. The bank was able to revamp existing processes. The entire organization benefited from the project.

CASE SUDY:SUCCESSION PLANNINGBANK OF THE SIERRA

FINDING THE SUCCESSOR:During this same period Ken Goodwin announced his retirement.Jim Holly announced restructuring of the organization build upon his Leadership Class of 2005 .The seventh member who stood out in the team, Kevin McPhaill was named Chief Financial(Banking) Officer replacing retiring Ken Goodwin.