MAILBOX: Captains of industry and succession planning

Ronald Harrison: This issue has been ventilated from time to time by various writers , but given the relatively small corporate sector in Guyana and its seeming lack of influence over policy I think a closer focus on governance is appropriate more so in the state sector and in publicly owned companies.

In one of our high profile companies DDL, the Chairman is over 80 years of age and even though the company has performed reasonably well during his tenure questions must be asked as to how much longer he can properly continue at the helm given the challenges facing businesses worldwide .I do not believe that he or any body for that matter is indispensable and therefore this company should firmly identify someone to take the reign from him together with a time frame for this. Clearly, this should be done to pre-empt any problem that could arise from his sudden illness, incapacity or god forbid his demise.

In fact it would probably be wise for him to resign as executive Chairman and sit on the Board of Directors for a period of time to assist with a smooth transition and power transfer. It appears that his deputy resides overseas from what has been gleaned in a recent article in the newspapers and this would not augur to well for the company if the Executive Chairman could not perform his duties.

DDL may well respond with such rhetoric that they have other senior Management personnel in place, but from what is evident in the public domain is that the current Chairman has the image of a very dominant role in the company and it is doubtful that there is entrepreneurial talent to match the likes of the incumbent. Whatever the argument, change is always a good and desirable thing once properly managed.