Do You Have Depth?

HEATHER CLANCY

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Can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Certainly, Tech Data&'s announcement that Raymund will retire as CEO later this year, while remaining as chairman, marks a turning point. I say this not just because he is stepping aside, but because the distributor has hired a search firm to pick his replacement, suggesting strongly that the next in line will come from outside the company.

I could list all sorts of things I&'d look for in his replacement, such as operational expertise, a deep understanding of overseas and emerging markets, knowledge of how consumer electronics will reshape the home integration world and so on. But I&'d also put the ability to listen to customers high on that list. It&'s not lost on me that the president of Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions, Ed Coleman, and the president and COO of specialty distributor Alternative Technology, Bill Botti, both came out of the channel from previous roles running VARs.

Regardless of which path Tech Data decides to take, may I suggest it&'s a good time to reassess whether you&'re grooming someone to take over for you or your key personnel.

I don&'t care what title you hold, I think far too many of us are caught short when it comes to succession planning. This matters not just when someone leaves (for whatever reason) but when you&'d like to redeploy someone. How many times have you moved to reward that great sales leader with a promotion only to find that there was no one to step in? Worse yet, have you considered whether management is really the right path for some of your best performers?

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I despair that the churn of the high-tech industry forces many of us to get locked into a tactical mind-set. But don&'t forget to think about the bigger picture, such as whether people are in the right roles. If you make the time, I guarantee that it&'ll also make the tactical stuff a whole lot easier.

Do you have a succession plan? HEATHER CLANCY, Editor at CRN, is interested in your feedback at [email protected].