Would you be willing to put any and all of your employees in front of an important customer and allow them to have a conversation? If your answer is ‘no way,’ that’s an unfortunate statement about some of your people. It would be good to think about that.

Today, the phrase management succession plan is used almost exclusively in the context of an exit strategy. But, especially in this time of high turnover, management succession at all levels needs to be as critical to an organization as bench strength is to a sports roster.

The recent bribery scandal involving admission to elite universities is just the latest data point reminding us how careful we must be when we hire people. Credentials don’t tell the whole story.

A year ago, about 75 percent of managers surveyed nationally were struggling to find suitable candidates. Little has changed in the past 12 months.