The succession problem that needs addressing

When a senior leader resigns there is quiet often a sense of urgency that tags along when searching for a replacement. When we ask the question “is there was anyone internally ready to step up?” the answer is almost always no.

This years Inside Digital & eCommerce Report puts a number on it that will have every leadership team pause.

Only 7% of businesses have ready-now successors for their most critical roles. In a market where specialist capability is scarce, hiring timelines are extending and the cost of a vacancy at leadership level is significant, that figure represents a commercial risk organisations are carrying without accounting for it.

Why the gap exists

These are functions that have evolved faster than organisations have been able to build leadership pipelines. Across eCommerce, digital, retail media and AI, demand for experienced leadership continues to outpace the development of internal talent and succession pipelines have not always kept pace with how quickly these disciplines have become central to business performance.

As Suzie McInerney, CEO of Six Degrees Executive, puts it well:

"One of the things we need to do with CEOs or the hiring/briefing manager is give them a bit of a dose of reality around what has become an exceptionally long list of things they expect this role or this person to have."

The increase in looking for a ‘unicorn candidate’ - specifically leadership who have deep expertise across every dimension of a modern marketing or commercial role - is a reflection of how much the function has changed.

The cost of waiting

35% of businesses say they would need to hire externally for most critical roles, and external hiring takes time. In the current market, roles with specialist transformation, AI or commercial leadership requirements are taking significantly longer to fill than they would have two years ago. The talent pool is smaller, and top candidates are rarely actively looking.

But the other side of that data is equally telling. 65% of businesses believe they could promote internally for most critical roles - yet only 7% have someone ready to step up right now. The intention to develop from within is there, but the industry is moving at a pace that means the gap between intent and readiness continues to grow.

Suzie described it well:

"It's a two-way recruitment process now. A business is assessing the candidate, but I can promise you, given how much of a risk it is for a really great CMO to leave their job they're probably being very well paid for, and to jump into another organisation, the cost of that going wrong for them in their career, and in this environment ending up without a job if it doesn't work out, means they're job hugging."

The candidates capable of stepping into critical leadership roles protected by their current employers - receiving counteroffers, being offered expanded remit, or simply unwilling to take the career risk of moving into an environment that isn't set up for them to succeed. The organisations moving proactively on succession, whether building internal pipelines or engaging external talent before a vacancy exists are consistently better placed when that moment arrives.

What the leadership capability data tells us

Important leadership capabilities have shifted. 64% of retail leaders identified data literacy and AI fluency as critical future capabilities, and 62% highlighted the ability to lead through ambiguity. The leaders who will be ready to step up are both technically competent but more importantly adaptable, commercially astute and comfortable operating in complexity.

Suzie makes an important point about this for candidates navigating their own development:

"Rather than managing it by climbing a corporate ladder, it's about managing your career to continue to add a suite of skills and tools, and case studies to make you more valuable to another organisation - even if it is in the same role."

For organisations, the equivalent is building deliberate development pathways for high-potential leaders rather than waiting to see who rises and treating succession as a continuous process rather than a response to a vacancy.

How this affects hiring decisions

When businesses don't have strong internal pipelines, the pressure on every external hire increases. The candidate needs to hit the ground running, deliver quickly and ideally be developed into a future leader.

Tenure is also a factor - the person who is right for the transformation phase is not always the right person once execution begins, and replacing a key executive leader at that point is a costly exercise.

Getting the hiring decision right the first time, including being honest about what the role needs versus what's on the wish list - becomes even more important when there's no strong internal succession option. The businesses securing the best outcomes are those who have done the hard work of getting aligned before the search starts, and who treat the process as a genuine two-way conversation.

The 2026 Inside Digital & eCommerce Report is available to download now. If you'd like to talk through what the findings mean for your leadership pipeline or your next hire, I'd love to connect, reach out directly here.