Degree

Master of Business Administration Executive

Faculty / School

School of Business Studies (SBS)

Year of Award

2024

Advisor/Supervisor

Syed Ameer Hasan Rizvi, Lecturer, Department of Management

Project Type

MBA Executive Research Project

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Succession Planning, Internal Talent, Leadership Development, Employee Morale, Performance-Driven Culture, Growth, Coaching, Training

Executive Summary

Overview of the Organization

PKIC is Pakistan’s largest development financial institution (DFI). The core business of the Company is corporate financing, investment banking, capital markets and treasury. PKIC operates with a workforce of ~80 qualified professionals.

Problem

The Company is facing an ongoing challenge of succession in its leadership roles / C-level positions. As whenever a head level position becomes vacant, the Company has to hire an individual from outside, and the internal pipeline of resources who have been in succession are ignored. There have been numerous occasions during the past 5 years where PKIC recruited people for leadership positions from outside and overlooked the internal pipeline of candidates who were part of the approved succession plans of the Company.

The above issue reflects a systemic failure of succession planning within the organization, which is disrupting the flow of business and operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Problem Significance and Impact

The significance and impact of the failure to develop internal pipeline for C-level roles is discussed below:

Financial Implications

  • External recruitment incurs significant costs encompassing hiring and onboarding expenses. Further, new hiring is mostly at fairly higher salary. Further, a quantitative analysis will help us better assess the financial impact of failed internal succession at senior positions.

  • Business Performance & Productivity

  • Investing in internal talent fosters loyalty, motivation, engagement, and long-term commitment. Our analysis will identify correlations between internal leadership development and business performance, emphasizing the importance of developing leaders and talent management.

Organizational Stability

  • Effectiveness of succession plans ensure leadership development from within, mitigating disruptions in business operations ensures sustainable long-term growth. Statistical insights will highlight correlations between effective succession planning and organizational stability.

Project Approach & Methodology

Our approach to addressing the failure of Leadership development and succession at PKIC will involve a variety of qualitative and quantitative assessment and research methodologies:

  • Our approach will be based on 3 stage methodology.

  1. “Document As-Is” leadership development and succession planning program

  1. “Perform Gap Analysis” against international best practices and benchmark practices

  1. “Propose To-Be”.

  • Interviews and focus group sessions: Gather comprehensive data through interviews, focus groups, to understand perceptions and experiences related to succession issues in Leadership roles. Engage key stakeholders, including senior management, HR personnel, and employees at various levels. These interviews will utilize open-ended questions to elicit detailed responses and insights.

  • Document Analysis: Analyze organizational documents, policies, and past reports to identify patterns and themes related to succession planning practices and outcomes. This analysis will involve scrutinizing written materials for recurring themes, contradictions, and areas of improvement.

  • Training Program Assessment: will conduct an evaluation of the training programs provided to employees to ascertain their adequacy in grooming individuals for leadership positions.

  • Root Cause analysis: will involve identifying patterns and themes within the data and practices, allowing us to explore the reasons which prompt Management not to promote people from inside for leadership roles.

  • Benchmarking: identify benchmarks and international best practices for leadership development and compare As-Is practices within PKIC to those benchmarks. By examining and gap analysis we can identify areas for improvement.

By employing these diverse qualitative and quantitative analysis tools, we aim to uncover problems resulting in failure of succession and leadership development. This will enable us to provide evidence-based recommendations for enhancing leadership development processes and organizational resilience.

Intended Solution

The intended solution will encompass a detailed report presenting our findings, research and analysis, and actionable recommendations:

  • Analysis Report: Present findings from interviews, focus groups, and document analysis to provide a nuanced understanding of succession planning challenges and opportunities.

  • Recommendation Roadmap: Provide a roadmap for implementing evidence-based solutions, including process improvements, training initiatives, and performance metrics.

  • Leadership Development Workshops: We will design multi-day workshops focused on team building, strategic management, and digital leadership to groom future leaders within the company.

  • Stakeholder Engagement: Engage key stakeholders, including senior management and HR personnel, in a collaborative dialogue to ensure buy-in and alignment with proposed solutions.

Conclusion:

By leveraging qualitative research methodologies, we aim to provide PKIC with actionable insights and recommendations to address succession planning challenges effectively. Our evidence-based approach will provide a roadmap for implementing sustainable solutions to address the failure of succession & leadership development program. We are committed to partnering with PKIC in this endeavor to enhance organizational resilience, leadership development, and competitive advantage.

Pages

xi, 80

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