Singapore companies take heed. Any weak links in the company’s succession planning is due to their failure in grooming people at the very bottom of the organisation.

According to Dr. Ann Howard, chief scientist for DDI, many companies in Singapore put great emphasis on developing and implementing succession plans for its top-level C-suite managers. In DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2008/2009 survey, 70% of the 55 HR practitioners surveyed say they have succession plans for C-suite managers. This number is far greater than 43% of 1,493 global HR practitioners who say likewise.

In comparison, only 20% of companies in Singapore develop their individual contributors (defined as professionals and front line people) as compared to 28% globally. Singapore-based companies also fare worse compared to their global counterparts when it comes to having a defined succession plans for first-level functional supervisors, at 26% and 38% respectively.

Howard warns that organisations worldwide do not start early enough with succession planning at the lower levels, only choosing to focus on the department level instead. “Singapore was particularly poor at that. Very few organisations are focusing on the lower levels of management. A lot of them focus on the CEO level, but that is not development, that is just thinking about the next person,” she adds.

And while Howard says it takes “a good 10 years” to develop leaders, failing to assure a good pool at the very bottom may see Singapore organisations facing a dearth of talent in the future.

One big mistake companies often make during succession planning is trying to attempt to accelerate the learning curve of high potentials due to the pressures of the economic cycles. But this will only work to a certain extent, Howard adds. “But what we’ve seen for the Asian region generally, compared to other regions of the world, is more failures on succession decisions. And I believe that is because of rapid growth, trying to hurry it along, grabbing somebody to fill a hole when you haven’t done the work that you should have done in developing people and making sure that you have the right ones to bring along.”

Howard pinpoints to several similar characteristics in companies which have strong succession planning practices. She says these organisations usually succession planning start at the bottom and pools of talent at every level of the organisation. Furthermore, these companies also work on assisting high potentials as they transit into higher levels and take on more complex leadership roles. Companies can also provide opportunities for leaders to develop on their weaker skills and practice on them, she adds.

So while organisations may complain about the lack of time in developing leaders, Howard says it is imperative that they do it anyway. “You better start right now, because it takes time. You can accelerate that [learning], but there is a limit on how much they can absorb as human beings.”