Succession planning is one of the most important aspects of life in the honeybee colony. Since the hive cannot exist without a queen, the colony makes sure that they never go long without a productive leader in place. In a recent profile of the Dean of the Villanova School of Business, James Danko (in the March 1st issue of the Financial Times), Mr. Danko notes that the very advocates for sound succession planning, business schools, often search for years for new Deans. The position often is placed under indefinite interim control and ultimately filled by an incumbent from outside the ranks versus the inside. Apart from the irony of this situation and the extended periods in which business schools are sans , Mr. Danko imparts a message of caution to any outsider who is brought in to run things. Don't be heavy-handed. When beekeepers need to change the genetic lineage of a hive because of poor selection (often susceptibility to disease), they will re-queen a colony with an outsider. But if they just plop a queen into the hive without a getting-acquainted period first (e. ., by keeping the queen partitioned from workers for a brief period), the workers will "heat-ball" the newcomer about half the time: surround the queen, pressurize her, and heat her to death - giving literal meaning to "you're toast." Why? Just because she is unproven outsider. When taking over at Villanova, Mr. Danko assured faculty that he would use the first 100 days to listen to them. Nice move. And five years later, he's still there.

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