How to create a succession plan that isn't a checkbox exercise

A succession plan on file isn’t the same as one that changes anything.

In a recent Sama webinar, two talent leaders compared notes on making succession planning matter, from very different starting points.

FirstGroup runs buses and trains across the UK, with around 30,000 employees. It’s going through a major structural change: the UK government is bringing two of its train operators, Great Western Railway and Avanti West Coast, into public ownership. Many of its people are frontline staff: bus drivers, train drivers and engineers. The workforce is also unusually stable. Bus drivers often stay “40, 45 years,” said Helen Hibberd, who leads Talent, Succession and Performance there.

Vinted, the online secondhand marketplace, became Lithuania’s first unicorn (a startup valued at €1 billion) in 2019, and its revenue grew 38% to €1.1 billion in 2025. Nauman Janjua, Director of People Growth and Development, is building its succession process for the first time.

One business is managing structural change with a long-serving workforce. The other is growing fast. Their advice lines up remarkably well. Here is a practical way to build a succession plan, drawn from that conversation.

1. Start with why, not with a template

It’s tempting to begin with a spreadsheet. Resist it, and agree first on what the plan is for: continuity, closing leadership gaps, growing internal talent, or all three.

At FirstGroup, succession planning had existed for years, but “only as a desktop exercise.” When the business asked its leaders what they wanted, they didn’t ask for a better assessment. They asked for the part that comes after it: building skills.

A plan designed mainly to make the talent team look good won’t get far either. In Nauman’s words, “it’s not going to help you much, neither you or the organization.”

2. Ask your leaders three questions

Open every succession conversation with senior leaders the same way. Vinted uses these three questions:

1. If you left tomorrow, what happens? Is anyone ready to step in?
2. If you were away for a year or two, could someone hold the role? Or would you need an external search?
3. Who could be ready in three to five years, and what would they need to get there?

The first question tests your contingency plan. The second tests whether anyone could step in for a longer stretch. The third turns succession planning into development planning, which is where the value is.

3. Separate critical roles from critical talent

This is where many plans go wrong. “A critical role is not the same as the person that is occupying the role.” You can have outstanding people in roles the business could manage without for a while, and roles the business can’t afford to leave empty.

Ask about both, separately, and keep the lists honest. If your critical roles list runs to hundreds, it has stopped meaning anything. Your genuinely critical roles are probably a short list. Your critical talent list is usually longer, and that’s fine.

4. Replace labels with development actions

The traditional approach is a nine-box grid: leaders are sorted into categories, often in a closed meeting where “the execs sit down, they put people in boxes.” FirstGroup kept a nine-box chart, but changed what it’s for. For the top three levels of the business:

• Leaders assess themselves against four leadership capabilities: strategic thinking, inspiring performance, developing people, and developing self. They give evidence and propose a development plan.
• Their manager verifies the assessment, so the conversation happens between the two of them.
• Results are compared across the business, and each leader is placed by the action they need: learn more in their current role, grow in their role, or accelerate toward a new one.

Each leader will then get the support that fits their stage, whether that’s coaching, mentoring or formal education. “I think the gold is in the conversations,” Helen said.

5. Connect succession to development and internal mobility

A succession plan that sits in a file does nothing. As Vinted’s Nauman Janjua put it, “Succession in isolation is not going to get you very far. It needs to be linked to real talent programs.”

When roles open up, look inside first, and think of career moves as more than promotions upward. A strong product manager in one part of the business might grow most by moving sideways to a different product.

Internal mobility only works if the business has clear job architecture, so people can see how they could move sideways and up. That matters most where people stay for decades. In a business where promotions can mean waiting for someone to leave, a clear path sideways keeps good people growing.

6. Build manager capability before you scale

Self-assessment only works when people can be honest, and when managers can have uncomfortable conversations with their teams. That takes time.

Vinted is deliberately starting with senior leaders and running a few cycles before extending the process. FirstGroup is feeding what it learns into its management development program, so future leaders arrive better prepared.

7. Use AI for the data, and keep the conversations human

At FirstGroup, leaders’ assessments went into Power BI, Microsoft’s reporting tool, and Copilot was used to analyze them. It showed which parts of the business had succession covered and which didn’t, work that used to take months by hand. AI is only as useful as the systems and data feeding it.

AI can do more of the analysis, but, for now at least, it can’t replace the conversation between a talent leader and a business leader. Use whichever AI tool your company allows, and use it deliberately.

8. Match transparency to your culture

Should people know they’re in a succession plan? There’s no single answer.

FirstGroup made the process visible, and positioned it carefully: being in the plan means getting development, not a guaranteed promotion. The response was very positive. Vinted is keeping it to the senior layer for now, because company-wide transparency would be too big a culture shift at this stage.

9. Start where your business is

“Don’t go in with a plan in mind. Go in with a blank sheet of paper,” was Helen’s final advice. There’s no framework you can lift and shift from another company. A business managing structural change and a business growing fast need different plans. Understand what yours needs, then build around it, even if that means starting with the basics.

A quick checklist

• Agree on what your succession plan is for before choosing a format
• Ask leaders the three questions: tomorrow, a year or two, three to five years
• List critical roles and critical talent separately
• Turn every placement into a development action
• Link the plan to development programs and internal moves
• Build manager capability before rolling out widely
• Use AI to analyze the data, and keep the decisions in conversation
• Choose a level of transparency your culture is ready for

Coaching is one way to give each leader in your plan support that fits their stage. To see how Sama can help, book a demo.

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