Networks, Alliances and Associations
Empowering members for transition success.
Networks, alliances and associations are at a crossroads. Their future depends on their ability to retain current members and grow membership.
Recruiting new members is not easy. Current members are often unprepared for and are therefore unlikely to transition successfully to the next generation of leadership. Members with successful succession transitions are more likely to maintain membership in the longterm.
With our Succession and Transition Preparation expertise and guidance, organizations take proactive steps to prepare and empower current members to execute successful succession transitions.
Case Study: Global Alliance of Professional Service Firms
Context: Leadership of a Global alliance of professional services firms was looking to optimize retention of members worldwide. Engaged Succession Strength because of concerns with increasing M&A activity (buyouts from major firms) in the industry and the potential impact on the alliance’s membership retention.
With the increasing number of senior leaders at retirement age, leadership was also unsure about members’ level of preparedness to execute a leadership transition via succession within their firms.
What We Did
Succession Strength performed an in-depth Succession Readiness Assessment on the alliance's members across the globe to determine whether current leaders, their successors and their firms were prepared for a leadership transition. The benchmarking assessment contained both quantitative and qualitative elements.
Participating firms and the alliance received valuable takeaway information:
Participating firms received their own individual Succession Readiness Assessment score for the purposes of benchmarking with their peers.
The Alliance received insights into member firms' longterm intent and succession readiness including - average intended timeline to transition, gaps in retiring leaders' and successors' preparation, unaddressed pain-points that cause successors to leave, percentage intending to sell, etc. Insights served as the catalyst for informed and intentional action.
After analyzing the results to provide a perspective on global vs regional preparation, Succession Strength worked to position the alliance as the bridge between member firm's needs and the appropriate resources. We presented a number of recommended actions to address the highest priority gaps in member preparation and provide relevant support for outgoing leaders and incoming successors using the most engaging and appropriate format.
Using insights from the global assessment, we created a number of customized interventions using methods that were relevant to the organization and the target recipients. These included a curriculum of high-touch content (e.g. succession roadmap, workshops, webinars) and low-touch messaging (e.g. mini videos) to educate and engage member firms' outgoing leaders and next generation leaders around preparing for an upcoming succession.
Timeline
Members received supporting materials in the form of actionable succession guidance within 6 months. Timeline from assessment to execution of the first set of workshops - 12 months.
Results
Here are examples of our feedback:
“Really liked your session. Much appreciated. I think the [next generation leaders] got a great deal from it” ~ President and Program Director
“Again thanks for your great [outgoing leader] session on succession - I really loved it.” ~ Chairman
“Had a great weekend attending [the next generation leadership program]. Thank you for great sessions with lots of opportunity for gaining useful knowledge and practical skills!” ~ Next Generation Leader of Member firm
“Thank you, it was another very insightful [outgoing leader] session..” ~ Regional Director