Citigroup has seen it’s stock drop some 30% in the last month due to ‘exposure’ related to subprime mortgage debt issues. Last weekend, the CEO, Chuck Prince stepped down as a direct result of the losses. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud owns about three and a half percent of Citigroup. In an interview for Fortune, Prince Alwaleed comments:

“It is a pity what is happening, but I hope that a big lesson is learned in the board of directors and the management of Citibank.

Q: What is that lesson specifically?

A: The lesson is that, No. 1, this management has to be at the highest class possible. No. 2, they have to have a succession plan. You can’t have a company that size without a [successor] ready. And No. 3, you need a professional who has run a bank.”

Fascinating to see succession planning highlighted as a take-away for the board in light of write-offs approaching US $15 billion, yet I wonder how realistic it is for a company like Citigroup (or Merril Lynch, who are in the same position and presumably courting some of the same candidates) to have someone- internal or external – primed and ready to step up when the going gets weird. Jockeying for the top can be such a socio-political struggle that I personally can’t imagine modeling a plan to contain it.

So anyway, the job is apparently still open if anyone’s interested. Didn’t see it listed on careers.citigroup.com, though.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 10th, 2007 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Archive, Business Culture, HR, Systematic Viewpoints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.