Succession is the most important governance function a board performs. It is also the one most consistently deferred, delayed, and done badly.
What the 2025 Survey Found
CXO India Insights conducts an annual governance survey of board members across listed and large private Indian companies. The succession planning findings from the 2025 edition make for uncomfortable reading.
- Fewer than a third of responding boards reported having an active, documented succession plan for the CEO role.
- Among those who said they did, nearly half acknowledged that the plan had not been reviewed in over two years.
- A significant minority admitted that their succession plan amounted to "we know who we would call if we needed to."
Why the Indian Context Complicates Things
This is not a uniquely Indian governance failure. Succession planning is perennially underdone in boardrooms globally. But the Indian context adds specific complications.
Many large Indian companies operate in the shadow of founding families who are ambivalent about the formal succession process, because it forces emotionally difficult conversations about the next generation's readiness. Promoter-controlled listed companies face particular challenges: SEBI's governance expectations around succession are clear, but enforcement has been uneven.
What the Best Boards Do Differently
The boards that manage succession well share a set of practices that are not complicated but require consistent discipline. Above all, they treat succession as an ongoing governance process rather than a crisis-response mechanism. In practice, that means they:
- Build internal leadership pipelines;
- Conduct regular talent reviews at the senior level;
- Periodically stress-test their emergency succession options.
They are also candid with the incumbent CEO about the process.
Experience shows that transparency, handled well, actually motivates rather than unsettles a confident leader.
And they engage a qualified external adviser to structure the process and challenge their assumptions.
