Apple is known for the vision of Steve Jobs and his co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Dell Inc is known for the visionary founder Michael Dell.

Lastly Starbucks the iconic coffee chain is known for the vision espoused by Howard Schultz.

John Sculley succeeded Steve Jobs at Apple , toppled him and eventually took Apple  , a once market leader , to near bankruptcy.

Kevin Rollins succeeded Michael Dell and failed miserably to carry on the legacy.

Same holds good for Jim Donald who succeeded Howard Schultz.

What this thus teaches us is that even though a WHY is espoused by a visionary , succession planning is of paramount importance since when these visionaries are not around the WHY can go fuzzy especially if leaders who lead with WHAT are given charge.

Adopted from Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why