Only about 54% of companies have a successor-in-waiting, and about 34% estimate it will take 90 days to name a successor, according to David Larcker and Brian Tayan of the Corporate Governance Research Initiative at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stephen Miles of The Miles Group, an executive consulting firm.
However Apple understood how deeply integrated Steve Jobs' name, his persona, was into the public perception of the company. And its board prepared so it could act swiftly when the day came that Jobs would no longer be in the driver's seat, so it could stave off the questioning and present a unified, strong front to its fans and critics.
