{"id":43303,"date":"2023-10-20T15:27:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/what-xero-did-when-a-senior-manager-said-he-was-leaving-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:27:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:27:36","slug":"what-xero-did-when-a-senior-manager-said-he-was-leaving-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/what-xero-did-when-a-senior-manager-said-he-was-leaving-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"What Xero did when a senior manager said he was leaving – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Paul Wallbank<\/strong><\/p>\n

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What happens when your managing director of five years standing announces he’s decided to move on?<\/p>\n

This was something Xero’s senior management had to deal with when Chris Ridd, the company’s managing director for Australia, recently announced that after five years he had decided to move on.<\/p>\n

In talking to Chris and his successor, Trent Innes, last week it was striking just how well the succession process had gone for Xero in dealing with the management change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has worked out well, it was our preference to go with an internal candidate,” the outgoing managing director told me.<\/p>\n

“From my perspective it\u2019s always good when you can do that but it doesn\u2019t always work out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of this comes down to Chris putting together a cohesive management team, something he’s quite proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cXero has a huge bench; we have a really talented leadership team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really good about leaving now given that the business has gone from six staff to 295 people, 3,500 customers to 265,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI achieved way more than what I thought I\u2019d be able to do in that role and after five years it seemed like the right time frame to go into something else,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Part of his confidence in moving on was his confidence in his successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrent and I go back twelve years at Microsoft,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

The other part of his confidence comes from the company having a clearly defined strategy and business plan that neither he nor Trent sees changing.<\/p>\n

Many companies struggle with changing their senior management and much of that is because the board and executives are in denial that people \u2013 even those at the top \u2013 will move on to new ventures.<\/p>\n

A stable management team, a solid business plan and a realistic view about leadership succession are the keys to successfully managing a change at the top.<\/p>\n

So far it looks like Xero has managed to pull off a change that many other companies struggle with.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paul Wallbank<\/em> <\/em> is the publisher of<\/em> <\/em> Networked Globe<\/em>, his personal blog <\/em> Decoding The New Economy<\/em> <\/em> charts how our society is changing in the connected century.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Article originally published by SmartCompany. Follow SmartCompany on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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