As organizations set their sights on 2026, a handful of megacompanies are preparing for the most significant transition an organization can go through: welcoming a new CEO. The trend isn’t necessarily isolated, experts say, but rather reflects a move toward shorter-tenured chief executives, highlighting the growing pressure for HR to plan ahead when it comes to CEO succession planning.
This month, retail giant Walmart, the nation’s largest employer (and home to the 2025 HR Executive of the Year, Donna Morris), announced longtime CEO Carl McMillon would retire in February. He will be succeeded by John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. Meanwhile, according to the Financial Times, Apple is speeding up its own CEO succession plans. Tim Cook, who succeeded founder Steve Jobs in 2011, is reportedly considering retirement as early as 2026
One of the nation’s other largest employers, Target, announced this summer that CEO Brian Cornell will be succeeded by current COO Michael Fiddelke in February.
The headlines tell a deeper story about CEO succession planning, according to research from Russell Reynolds. The firm found that the average CEO tenure in the first half of 2025 was 6.8 years—compared to 7.7 last year—the lowest since the organization started tracking the data in 2018.
“It’s rarely too early” to start thinking about CEO succession planning, says Dan Russell, senior partner, global head of assessment at RHR International. His firm advises clients to start the process immediately after a new CEO is seated.
“It should be an ongoing cycle of identifying the company’s leadership needs, understanding your talent and investing in developing the talent needed to in the future,” Russell says.
Russell notes that CEO departures have been picking up pace for the last several years.
He cites a combination of factors: a wave of CEOs hitting retirement age; growing pressure in certain sectors like financial, retail and entertainment; and the “complex and rapidly shifting economic, technological and political landscape.”
Together, these factors create an environment where CEO succession planning has become an increasing board priority. This also creates continued opportunities for HR leaders to elevate the strategic role of their function.
“Now more than ever before, boards are recognizing the need for proactive CEO succession planning,” he says.
Effective CEO succession planning
In a recent RHR webinar, CHROs highlighted what made previous CEO transitions successful. Topping the list, Russell says, is the need to be “future-oriented” and to focus not on the “who” but on the “what” in CEO succession planning.
“It’s very tempting to structure succession planning around a person who seems to be the ‘heir apparent.’ What’s actually most important is defining what the next CEO needs to accomplish within what context, rather than looking to the past or mirroring a prior CEO,” he says.
Look to the business strategy and evolving market forces the company will be up against in order to define and organize the needs for an incoming CEO, Russell says.
And, don’t treat CEO succession planning as a one-off activity. It should be an ongoing, years-long process, involving talent reviews, leadership assessment and career pathing.
New opportunities for strategic collaboration
Such a comprehensive process can’t be managed by one individual or entity. HR needs to work closely with the board of directors as their “trusted advisor,” providing objective perspectives, access to best practices and the data to drive decision-making. A “close, trusted personal and professional” relationship with the current CEO is also crucial, Russell says.
HR leaders must work with executive and senior management teams, as well as internal candidates, guiding communication about the process while “ensuring procedural fairness, information symmetry and providing comfort that the process is fair and symmetric.”
Some leaders also bring in an external advisory team, and CHROs must consider the interests of shareholders, investors and customers, Russell says.
Regardless of whom CHROs are working with, they must aim to diffuse potential tension in CEO succession planning by “normalizing the process” and prioritizing consistency, adds Ani Huang, president and CEO of the Center On Executive Compensation, a division of the HR Policy Association.
“It’s about what’s going to future-proof the organization,” she recently told HR Executive. “The long-term value and sustainability of the company is inherent not just in who you pick, but in the process itself.”
