Leadership Development
C-suite succession planning. Built on evidence, giving you clarity when it matters most.
Most succession plans name the successors. We work with you to assess readiness and back it with evidence.
C-suite succession planning delivered by chartered occupational psychologists with direct experience of working at board and executive level.
The gap between the name on the plan and the evidence behind it is one of the most expensive gaps in organisational governance, and it only becomes apparent when the succession event arrives. Wharton Global works with boards and executive teams to replace informal processes with rigorous psychological assessment, producing an honest picture of who is ready, who needs development, and what risk the organisation is carrying.
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The problem
Successors are often identified based on current performance, political visibility, and the preferences of influential sponsors, rather than a rigorous assessment of their readiness. Development is designed around what the person is doing now, rather than the specific demands of the role they are being prepared for.
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What Wharton Global does
We begin with the role, not the candidates. Working with boards and executive teams, we define what leadership capability needs to look like at the top of the organisation, accounting for where it is going, not where it has been. Only then do we assess identified successors against that standard, using tools such as Hogan and Mosaic for leadership potential and derailment risk, alongside structured development methodologies.
The output is an honest picture of current capability, specific development needs, and a realistic timeline to readiness. Where the succession pool is thin, we work with boards to understand and manage that risk clearly. Where development is needed, we design programmes built around the specific challenges the individual needs to navigate before stepping up.
This work operates at board and nomination committee level. We are accustomed to the governance requirements, the sensitivities involved, and the need for absolute discretion.
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Our approach
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Role definition
Before assessing anyone, we define what leadership capability looks like at the top of this organisation in its strategic context.
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Successor assessment
Identified successors assessed using Hogan, Mosaic, and structured development methodology against the capability standard defined in step one.
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Honest reporting
A clear account of current capability, gaps, development priorities, and realistic timeline to readiness for each successor. Presented to the board with full transparency.
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Development programme
Where gaps are identified, we design development programmes targeted at the specific challenges each individual needs to navigate before stepping up.
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Ongoing review
Succession planning is not a one-time event. We build in formal review points, so the picture stays current as the organisation and the individuals within it develop.
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What it produces
Appointment decisions grounded in evidence. A senior talent pool developing toward defined objectives. Reduced structural dependence on external recruitment for the roles that matter most.
A £1.2 billion UK healthcare organisation faced simultaneous succession at chair and chief executive level following four decades under a single defining leader, presenting both a personnel challenge and a cultural inflection point. Wharton Global began with a forensic diagnostic of engagement data, performance metrics, and cultural indicators before working with the board to define the specific behavioural standards the next leadership generation needed to embody. They then assessed every candidate through psychometric profiling, behavioural risk analysis, and followed by structured in-depth interviews. A chair and chief executive were appointed in tandem, with the explicit understanding that their working relationship would shape organisational tone as significantly as their individual capabilities. Months after the appointments were completed, the organisation became one of the first in the UK to treat COVID-19 patients. The new leadership team responded to this challenge with the cohesion, clarity, and collective resilience that the selection process had been specifically designed to identify.
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Who this is for
Boards and executive teams where leadership continuity is a material risk, where a significant transition is approaching within one to three years, or where a previous succession event produced a result the board is determined not to repeat.
PE-backed businesses and high-growth organisations where the leadership team is a primary driver of valuation and investor confidence, and where the departure of a key individual without a credible successor represents a material risk to the value creation plan.
Publicly listed organisations where governance requirements around succession are under increasing scrutiny.
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Questions we get asked
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Investment case
A poorly managed succession event at C-suite, a rushed external appointment, a failed internal promotion, or a key departure with no credible replacement commonly costs the organisation more than three times the departing leader's salary before accounting for strategic disruption. For PE-backed businesses, where investor confidence in the leadership team is a direct component of valuation, the cost runs higher. Evidence-based succession planning is amongst the highest-return governance investment a board can make.
Talk to usClient feedback
“Over fifteen years and two organisations, Neville has given me the one thing these decisions need and rarely get, an independent, honest view of who is ready to lead and who is not yet. They are unafraid to challenge a board's assumptions, and they bring the evidence to back it up. I trust their judgement, which is why I re-engaged them when I moved organisations.”
Global HR Executive, 15 year relationship
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