The allure of a fresh perspective from the outside often blinds organizations to the homegrown talent already familiar with their challenges.
The Backdrop
Is there anything wrong with hard, even obsessive, work? Ask a cannabis executive and they’ll rhapsodize or theorize about why the only thing addictive about cannabis is the work building the space. It’s especially intriguing because it is an experience steeped in irony. It’s rewarding, but not in the ways previously thought. It can be a series of false starts and rapid inclines. There’s growth, stasis, boredom, busywork, and routine.
Against this backdrop, you have not necessarily the first but a relatively novel manifestation of a new species: the contemporary cannabis executive, tasked with navigating an environment that can be unforgiving in its current incarnation. And for all the intriguing elements in an emerging space, some elements are actually just on repeat from the legacy realm when it pertains to the executive ranks. Enter succession planning.
With the market drippy with volatility, the succession planning process, and execution is reminiscent of legacy industries: it simply doesn’t happen. You either do or you don’t have a plan. And if you’re an owner/founder or part of a small and/or emerging company, the experience often leans towards feelings to be dissected instead of facts to be dealt with.
Why it matters in Weed (everywhere actually)
Even though it is never intentional, it is still very risky when there are big changes in consequential areas of a business and no plan in place. Much more so at the leadership level. There has been a litany of recent departures and executives being jettisoned from several of the larger, more public-facing MSO’s that brings this into focus.
And imagine, for a moment, the rest of the landscape where this too is playing out in real time for small-to-midsize companies. Truth be told, it’s better to have a bumbling succession process in mind than none whatsoever. Often, a hastily put together, extremely broad, and externally focused search is the method dujour when replacing a primary executive. Qualified peers from within should be part of the process, and they are, but often as participants, not central players.
This is a byproduct of large and mid-sized companies failing to pay adequate attention to their leadership pipelines and succession processes. Flawed succession practices lead to excessive turnover among senior executives and, in the end, significant value destruction for companies and investment portfolios. In the world of executive search, it’s no surprise we support external recruitment. Yet, the overreliance on hiring leaders from outside has become a significant problem across industries, including cannabis. This approach carries hidden costs: organizations lose valuable intellectual capital when key executives depart, while internal successors, often hastily promoted, struggle with poor preparation.
Both approaches have their pitfalls. Internal hires can entrench the existing culture, while external hires risk radical shifts—sometimes for better, but often for worse. Peter Cappelli, professor of Management at The Wharton School and Director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources, has research that resonates here. He argues that companies frequently display an irrational preference for outside candidates—untested, unknown, and thus, seemingly more “exciting.” The allure of a fresh perspective from the outside often blinds organizations to the homegrown talent already familiar with their challenges.
Educate the rank and file
To hold the belief that your successor could exist within your firm is to also simultaneously ask yourself and others in positions of authority if you’ve been training and educating the next generation of leader within your organization.Tom Peter’s book Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism, has long and passionately said that the job of a leader is not to gain more followers but rather to develop more leaders. It’s a cultural and financial imperative to get it right.
Still, it is an afterthought, just happening or being paid for rather than incubated, cultured, and raised. It’s a practical and pragmatic solution within reach, and you can create or improve your process to place your tomorrow in the right hands.
Curious to learn more? Email me: Mike@flowerhire.com, all are welcome.
Mike Siebold is a strategic advisor and investor to several cannabis teams domestically. His exposure to the hiring demand and movement of people within the cannabis industry gives him a unique perspective on the prospects and viability of players across the entire ecosystem.