Succession planning and the development of successful leaders is key to driving business success. While nearly all corporations recognize the importance of strong leadership, a study of 350 corporations found that less than 44% of corporations have formal processes for identifying and developing high-potential leaders. For those companies that do have processes in place, the effective and efficient development of leaders can then yield competitive advantage over peers in their industry. There is an abundance of materials available on the topic of leadership, however, we have identified several key components for driving the effective identification, development and utilization of successors to executive level leadership positions.