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The High Cost of Poor Succession Planning

Balint Alovits   

In August 2013, Steve Ballmer abruptly announced that he would step down as chief executive of Microsoft as soon as his replacement could be found. Thus began one of the most important CEO searches in the past decade—and a case study in the dos and don’ts of senior leadership succession.

A version of this article appeared in the May–June 2021 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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