Key man risk

It’s not unusual for the CEOs to bring in people of their choice in key positions, as a dependable team is an essential prerequisite for achieving the intended objectives. It happens all the time and while the existing senior position holders suffer – they either have to accept less meaty and more subordinated roles or quit altogether, if there’s no role- ultimately, if the organisation benefits, such sacrifices should be acceptable as part of the larger corporate upheaval! 

It’s also true that it’s unfair to expect  the new team to start firing all their cylinders immediately in pursuit of the stated objectives. However, what happens when after passage of sufficient time and availability  of all the required enablers, the team falters and the organisation falls well short of the desired outcomes! 

External factors also play an important role in guiding the direction that an organisation has to take and the impact a few of these factors – regulatory, geopolitical, natural disasters etc  – could neutralise the advantage of having assembled a top cracker of a team! 

To my mind, performance of any organisation is contingent upon several factors – internal as well as external- and instead of placing such a huge reliance on individuals, it could be much more advantageous to keep up the morale of the existing staff complement, simultaneously on boarding talent laterally wherever the internal skills could be lacking ! A cohesive, enthusiastic and charged up team will always deliver and the key man risks are substantially mitigated.

Let me also put in a caveat here that this post is not directed at any specific organisation as the above happens all across at all points of time.