Passing the Baton: Managing the Process of CEO Succession, by Richard F. Vancil. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1987.

This is one of the rare books that is devoted exclusively to CEO succession. It is remarkable, both in its insights and its writing. Its quotable sentences begin in the foreword by Alonzo McDonald, himself a CEO: “Even the term CEO carries an aura of mystique…The literature surrounding the concept of the CEO, unlike the literature of marketing, is mostly oral. This is the story of matching extraordinary talents with very complex and challenging situations. Each side of the equation represents part of an enormous puzzle with needs to balance, fit, assess, and ultimately to match.” Every chapter is filled with insights such as “The basic objective of the succession process is to pick the best person to be CEO. Another objective that in many instances appears to be of overriding importance - the succession process should be orderly, designed to minimise the organisational disruption that is almost inevitable when a change in leadership occurs.” An at times confronting read, well worth it.