The delicate art of succession planning is on full display as Biden hands the nomination to Harris. Here’s what politics could learn from corporate America

By Azure GilmanDeputy Leadership Editor
Azure GilmanDeputy Leadership Editor

Azure Gilman is the former deputy editor for the Leadership desk at Fortune, assigning and editing stories about the workplace and the C-suite.

Emma BurleighBy Emma BurleighReporter, Success
Emma BurleighReporter, Success

    Emma Burleigh is a reporter at Fortune, covering success, careers, entrepreneurship, and personal finance. Before joining the Success desk, she co-authored Fortune’s CHRO Daily newsletter, extensively covering the workplace and the future of jobs. Emma has also written for publications including the Observer and The China Project, publishing long-form stories on culture, entertainment, and geopolitics. She has a joint-master’s degree from New York University in Global Journalism and East Asian Studies.

    President Biden and Kamala Harris Spends Fourth Of July At The White House
    Biden could have learned a thing or two from corporate America in passing the Democratic nomination to Harris.
    Getty Images

    Good morning!

    After a disastrous debate performance and weeks of increasingly urgent calls for President Joe Biden to step down, he finally decided to give up seeking reelection over the weekend. He has handed the baton to his vice president, Kamala Harris, who is moving quickly to shore up support

    Many Democrats are relieved that Biden decided to pass the torch, but the entire ordeal was a nailbiter for millions of Americans, and illustrated some timeless lessons: Leaders are reluctant to give up power, and they rarely enjoy planning for their own professional ending. 

    While the political sphere is very different from corporate America, the entire saga shows the perils of succession planning—something that the corporate world is all too familiar with—and highlights some lessons that politics might learn from the business world, writes my colleague Lila MacLellan

    Finding and grooming the next CEO or C-suite member should be an obsession for corporate boards, and CHROs are often a big part of that process. They look out for rising stars, and cultivate those workers to develop their skills and prepare them for the C-suite. Making sure there are several different candidates ready to step into a role when the time comes is often the sign of a company’s strength, and it often falls on HR to make that happen. 

    “Great CHROs understand that succession planning is a multi-year process and involves accessing and developing your best internal talent and actively evaluating potential external talent,” Dan Kaplan, senior client partner for the CHRO practice at Korn Ferry, a leadership advisory firm, tells Fortune. “The best CHROs allow the Board and CEO an opportunity to get to know the best external talent and develop relationships with them.”

    Planning for succession also came up as a New Year’s resolution for CHROs who Fortune spoke with in January. “I will continue to focus on succession planning, including ensuring that all very senior roles have two identified successors and all successors have a development plan,” said Colleen McKeown, the CHRO of Prologis, a real estate investment trust company. 

    Political parties aren’t at all the same thing as Fortune 500 companies. But they’re still organizations of humans endeavoring towards certain goals. And although corporate governance doesn’t always ensure a seamless succession of course—just look at Starbucks and Disney—the events over the weekend show the importance of laying the groundwork early on.

    Azure Gilman
    azure.gilman@fortune.com

    Today’s edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.

    Around the Table

    A round-up of the most important HR headlines.

    Many of the U.S.’s largest labor unions are standing behind Harris as the Democratic nominee due to her pro-union work, but others are still weighing their support for her candidacy. Washington Post

    Thousands of video game industry jobs were slashed in 2023 due to investments in AI, and even more are expected to be cut this year, as the tech gobbles up more creative roles. Wired

    Gen Z job seekers love company transparency, and are turned off when employers “double bind” or push contradictory sentiments about workplace expectations and values. Business Insider

    The chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association at Delta said in a letter to union members that they have been unable to get through to the company and feel “abandoned” amid system disruptions. Bloomberg

    Watercooler

    Everything you need to know from Fortune.

    Wine and dine. A personal finance guru advises that employers go to dinner with job candidates’ and their spouses in order to make final judgments based on “if your candidate is married to crazy.” —Eleanor Pringle

    Consequences. Women want flexible schedules to better handle their excessive responsibilities, and a report shows that companies that enforced RTO mandates had a disproportionate amount of female staffers exit. —Jane Thier

    No deal. Vice President Harris has been a staunch supporter of worker protections and environmental sustainability, so much so that she has opposed trade deals that don’t hit those marks. —Paolo Confino

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