CNN Business – A surprising number of companies don’t have a CEO succession plan. Here’s why.

By Jeanne Sahadi

Whether they quit, retire, get fired or die, all CEOs eventually leave. The billion-dollar question is: Who should replace them?

The boards of 20% of public companies and 32% of private ones can’t answer that question. That’s because they haven’t discussed long-term succession planning in the past 12 months, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Corporate Directors.

A higher percentage haven’t even identified an interim CEO in case a CEO leaves abruptly.

But merely discussing a succession plan doesn’t really indicate whether a board is adequately prepared to replace an exiting CEO.

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