Executive Summary
This case entails the story of how an electric utilities company, Benson Electric, has to face the problem of selecting a new president after the former president has passed away. Considering that this company is a family business this type of matter is a very delicate one. The family members are all eager to get this job, however, the former president of the company, Buck Benson, has not officially appointed anyone to succeed him.
In this report there is a detailed discussion on the problems faced in this case, the characters involved, the nature of the situation, as well as recommendations that the company’s current board of directors might wish to follow in their pursuit of selecting a new president for Benson Electric.
Introduction
Benson Electric is a company that has been around for a while, more than 63 years in fact. The company has always been a family business, and leadership has been passed on from each generation. This time however, the last president of the company, Buck Benson, has not designated anyone to succeed him, and this has led to the struggle that the company now finds itself in. All of the family members have some degree of influence on who gets to be the next president of the company. It is worth noting however that Buck anticipated that this problem would happen; this is why he has hired a board of directors that is made up of outside members, to eliminate bias in the decisions and for a healthy outside perspective.
As the case has pointed out, the widow of the company’s president, Millie Benson, has decided that the board of directors is to decide on who will succeed Buck. This report will focus on the best way that the board can accomplish this task; which is to analyze what qualities they are looking for in their candidate. As well as looking at the current situation that the company is in, which means that the candidate must be suited in being able to deal with the company’s future prospects. The...