Eric Clarke surprised many in the industry when he announced his retirement in May.
But the longtime Orion CEO said he reached a point where he realized that for his company to reach the next stage of growth, he had to step aside for new leadership.
"We were at a tipping point, everything essentially became a bottleneck," he says. "I was the bottleneck."
In an interview with Action! magazine, Clarke discussed the key factor that any leader planning for succession needs to account for.
Click on the video below to watch the full interview.
Transcript:
Succession is hard because we often find ourselves with a business that we founded. It has become part of our lives, become part of our extended family, so to speak. And finding someone that you can trust as a true partner is not an easy thing to do.
It's all about figuring out who's the right person to partner with. Who can you work with day in and day out? And who do you have that relationship with – that trusted relationship – to help your business and your staff and your teams and the services that you provide go to the next level?
For Orion to go to the next level, I needed to be able to find some individuals that I could work with day in and day out, ask them to step up and take on some roles and responsibilities that I had so that I could focus on the strategic integrations of the companies that we had acquired – so that we could really deliver two things back to our advisors – operating efficiency and a better client experience. For us, it was about creating scale for our business, creating the ability to provide focus on those things that were most important.
Ultimately, succession starts with trust. You have to have a trusted relationship. You have to build a partnership. And you have to be willing to let go of those things that you're so heavily involved in today. But ultimately, to do that, it starts with trust.
For us at Orion, it was about coming together in a way that would allow us to scale the business. We were at a tipping point, everything essentially became a bottleneck. I was the bottleneck. And when I realized I was the bottleneck, then I realized, hey, you know what, I have got to be willing to let some other people step up and take on some of the day-to-day responsibilities that I had shouldered to that point.