Article originally published at Nexo Jornal in 23/11/2024
*By Felipe Insunza Groba, Juliana Santos Oliveira and Paula Jancso Fabiani
Succession is a challenge inherent to life and it is tangled with every part of society, being family businesses, where the conflict over inheritances can generate fights that are almost fratricidal, such as the one seen in the TV series ‘Succession’; in politics, where periods of leadership transition are often scared with instabilities; or even at the core of religious doctrines, such as the dispute between shiites and sunnis, the result of a succession conflict that occurred after the death of prophet Muhammad.
Humanity is filled with examples of how succession can be a decisive moment in history, shaping a nation’s future and triggering big social transformations and, in Brazil, it is no different. After almost fifty years of Dom Pedro II’s reign, the monarchy, lacking a well structured succession, started to slowly decay, showing how the absence of planning can weaken even solid institutions.
When we talk about the business world, the recent passing of Silvio Santos, one of the biggest names in Brazilian television and founder of the Grupo Silvio Santos, calls into question the continuity of the company as we know it today. Throughout decades, Silvio built a media and business empire based on his own personal image, leaving a great challenge for his successors to deal with his absence.
And when it comes to the social sector, this pattern repeats itself. Remarkable visionary leaders, gifted with passion and vision, are the soul of many civil society organizations. These people dedicate their lives to a cause and to the common good, captivate people to contribute with their organization and manage it as if they were their own children. However, this same passion that structures and drives these organizations can become an obstacle when it comes to succession, resulting in the so-called founder’s syndrome. This phenomenon, characterized by the founder’s difficulty in delegating responsibilities or preparing new leadership, can establish an extreme dependency on its main spokesperson. Like so, it negatively impacts organizational culture, making leadership transitions much more difficult. The syndrome may also directly compromise the decision-making process, jamming the institution’s capacity for innovation.
Ending or reducing the effects of founder’s syndrome requires a clarity of purpose and planning, with actions that ensure a progressive division of the decision-making process as the organization matures. One of the main approaches is the strengthening of the organization’s governance through the creation of a Board, in which the members are truly independent and have real voice and power in decision-making. This helps because the inclusion of people with different profiles and with no emotional connections with the current leadership allows the renewal of ideas and the mitigation of the excessive influence of long-lasting leaders or even founders, ensuring that governance will be more balanced and representative.
This process is usually not simple once the distribution of power is not limited to technical matters and must consider the emotional connections and vanities inherent to human nature. Gradually sharing responsibilities and delegating assignments before the succession itself is a way to prepare the new generation of leaders and build trust in their capacities, reducing conflicts and possible resistances. Many organizations chose the creation of succession committees, who are dedicated to proposing an action plan, mapping talents and monitoring the succession processes, guaranteeing that they are well conducted.
The organization’s leadership transition, however, must be incorporated into a broader succession and contingency plan. A founder’s withdrawal is just one of the possible changes that may challenge the maintenance of an organization, and a good succession plan must also oversee the replacement of other key leaders and collaborators throughout time. Identifying key seats inside the organization and developing individualized action plans for those positions is crucial. IDIS went through a succession process in which the founder worked closely with the new leadership and the Board to ensure a positive transition for the organization, preserving its culture, values and acquired knowledge. And we currently have been working on the succession process for strategic directors and managers.
To reduce the stigma and fear of succession conversations in an organization, it is important that this topic is frequently discussed in a respectful and honest manner, together with the governance members and collaborators. When it comes to external communication, the best practice is to inform relevant successions to different stakeholders, partners and donors who are assisted by the organization. This assures that all parties involved are prepared and aligned with the transition process, diminishing the feeling of rupture that might be generated by change.
Financial sustainability is another essential factor in guaranteeing smooth succession processes. Endowments represent a strategic solution to ensure the longevity of a civil society organization. These funds, when managed responsibly, can provide enough resources to pay future executives, especially positions occupied by volunteers who will be replaced by paid successors. Beyond ensuring long-term resources, the creation of an endowment fund provides safety to collaborators regarding the future of the organization even after a leadership change.
Although the succession process is filled with uncertainties, when embracing new voices and knowledge, organizations have a chance to review their mission, activities and practices, aligning themselves with the new social demands and strengthening their relevance. Succession, nevertheless, should not be faced only as a challenge, but also as a window of opportunity to promote innovation, a chance to learn with the past to work on the future. The lack of succession planning can compromise the longevity of social projects and undermine thousands of people who benefit from it or even depend on these organizations. To leaders who will be followed, direct involvement with successors is crucial. Engaging with the matter in a proactive manner and before it is too late is the only way to ensure the impacts made in people’s lives are perpetuated.
Audience at the celebration in the MASP auditorium. Credit: Paula Miranda.
Afterwards, a tribute was then paid to 
“We’re not able to live properly. Living properly is not only living well, living properly is making all of us, regardless of being Indigenous people or the quilombolas or non-indigenous populations, but it’s also for all of us to have a quality of life and for us to be able to make everyone have air that we can breathe in with quality. But all of these responsibilities are placed on the indigenous populations because of the forests, because of the Amazon where we are inserted. And I would like to say that it is not a responsibility of the Indigenous populations, it’s a responsibility that we all have: the Indigenous people, the representatives of companies and organizations that are here, all the citizens and especially the government, because the Brazilian government has the duty of guaranteeing our rights”, says Claudia.
Reinforcing the importance of acting collectively and hearing different actors, Cristiane Sultani talked about how, in her philanthropic path, meeting, listening and collaborating with people were the key aspects that transformed her journey in the field. Since she founded Beja Institute, in 2021, she has tried ‘to philanthrope’, as she likes to say, in a strategic and collaborative way, although she recognizes that she is not always able to do so. The hearing of the sector’s demands, researching global philanthropic tendencies and inspirational success stories helped her along her own process. 
Amongst the many meanings of the Portuguese polysemic word ‘nós’, one of the most commonly used is to say ‘us’. But the panelist’s speeches pointed out a meaning of the word contrary to this word: the lack of collectivity – maybe the main challenge we must face in contemporary society. Sergio Fausto, General Director of Fundação Fernando Henrique Cardoso, says: 
Cida Bento, cofounder of the Center for Studies on Labor Relations and Inequalities, reinforces the importance of collectivity through the establishment of networks, and she goes even further defending a change in the power structure, bringing more diversity and, therefore, plurality of voices and interests to philanthropy. The search for solutions and the decision-making process lacks perspective from the part of the population that has been historically marginalized, the one’s who suffer with social, economic and environmental challenges in the current reality.
