Succession of top leaders and especially CEOs makes news. And it should, since it creates turmoil for most organizations. Only 14 percent of organizations are well prepared to deal with the sudden loss of its key leaders, according to a survey by American Management Association Corporate Learning Solutions.

But while CEO succession is certainly important, today’s agile organizations need to reach deeper down into the org structure for succession planning and leadership development that will protect ongoing operations and performance.

Sixteen Ways Succession Planning Helps Your Business Now counsels: Your firm needs to ensure that a solid and reliable leadership team is in place. You also need to consider carefully the other members of the management team who are critical to the continuity and productivity of the firm. Not only do you need top leadership; you also need a deep and well-defined team of individuals with clearly defined responsibilities and accountabilities.

Unfortunately, succession planning is not top of mind for business owners. For many, succession management is good to talk about, hard to practice.

Succession Planning is a Must for organizations of all sizes. One reason is the urgency of Refilling the Pipeline:

In the next 3 to 5 years, the first surge of Baby Boomers is expected to exit the workforce. Beyond the loss of people, there will be significant loss of experience, knowledge, perspective and wisdom. This prospect of losing so much talent and knowledge in a short period of time has forced even the most reluctant to take notice and begin focusing on succession planning.

Successful and responsible succession planning calls for recognition of what’s at stake coupled with an effective succession management process that involves all the stakeholders.