IN Part 1 yesterday, I made the case that succession planning in plantations is not merely an human resource (HR) exercise. It is leadership replanting ... and like all replanting, it should begin before the old palms start to decline.
Yet many companies still postpone the hard conversation until the senior leader is tired, the successor uncertain, the board anxious, and everyone suddenly discovers that “institutional memory” has been sitting inside one person’s head, guarded by three phones and a familiar parking bay.
Recognising the problem is only the first round.
The harder task is to grow the next bench – not only among planters in the field, but across mills, finance, sustainability, logistics, downstream, public affairs and the also the C-suite.
That is where succession planning must move from polite discussion to deliberate planting.
Growing the next bench
Succession planning is not only about who sits in the corner office, nor only about who walks the estate rounds. It is about the whole bench.
A serious plantation succession plan must ask more than “Who is next?” It must ask: Who can run estates and mills? Who understands research and development (R&D), procurement, mechanisation, finance and sustainability?
Who can engage government without sounding entitled, face non-governmental organisations without sounding defensive, and speak to customers, investors and young recruits without language from the 1980s?
The next generation of plantation leadership must stretch across the supply chain from estates and mills to downstream, finance, sustainability and public affairs.
Upstream, leaders must understand agronomy, labour, mechanisation, safety, harvesting discipline and replanting economics.
At the mill, they must grasp throughput, oil losses, maintenance, food safety, methane capture, biomass and traceability. Downstream and at corporate level, they must connect refining, oleochemicals, biodiesel, logistics, market access, strategy, communication and reputation.
Across all levels, they must also be financially literate. It is no longer enough to know the crop without understanding the numbers.
Future leaders must read accounts, margins, cash flow, capital expenditure, return on investment, cost per tonne, replanting reserves, debt, working capital and the financial consequences of operational decisions.
Biology may grow the crop, but finance decides whether the business can keep growing. Equally important, can plantation careers be made attractive again?
Curiosity alone will not keep young Malaysians in the sector if housing is poor, promotion unclear, mentoring weak and career paths look like muddy roads without signboards.
The estate must be seen as a living operating system - where biology, engineering, logistics, sustainability, community and business meet under the sun, with mud still respectfully attached to the boots.
From field exposure to boardroom readiness
Not every future leader will begin as a planter. Some may begin in mills, finance, sustainability, digital systems, marketing or R&D. The best plantation companies will know how to cross-pollinate these talents.
A young finance executive should understand estate realities. A sustainability officer should understand harvesting, replanting and smallholder pressures. A mill engineer should understand crop supply volatility.
A public affairs officer should know enough about field operations not to sound like a brochure. A future chief executive officer (CEO) should not rise only through air-conditioned strategy rooms.
He or she must have enough field exposure to know that rainfall, roads, labour and biology do not always obey boardroom forecasts. The old plantation training model had its strengths; young cadets learned quickly that palms do not respond to PowerPoint. But the future requires structured learning, not hardship alone.
Rotations must be purposeful. Mentoring must be real. Performance reviews must measure not only crop and cost, but leadership behaviour, ethics, safety, sustainability and the ability to build teams. Women planters need fair pathways.
Technical specialists should not be treated as second-class citizens simply because they do not shout like old-style estate heroes. Digital talent must be brought close to operations, not locked in headquarters creating dashboards nobody in the field trusts.
The industry also needs clearer pathways from operational leadership to corporate leadership.
Too often, excellent field people are kept in the field until exhausted, while corporate roles are filled by those who may understand presentation decks better than plantation decks. This gap must narrow.
The future C-suite in palm oil must include people who understand the field deeply, the mill seriously, the market intelligently and society respectfully.
A plantation CEO of the future cannot be merely a cost-cutter, commodity watcher or boardroom performer. He or she must understand the whole chain. And palm oil has always been a long game.
Starting before the siren sounds
Succession planning has to begin early. Not six months before retirement. Not when the senior suddenly falls ill. Not when the board asks, “Who is next?” and everyone looks at the HR manager.
It should begin with a map of critical roles. Which roles would hurt most if suddenly vacant? Which estates depend too heavily on one manager? Which mills have no second line?
Which agronomists carry knowledge that has not been transferred? Which sustainability officers hold the certification memory? Which C-suite roles have genuine deputies and not merely hopeful observers?
Then comes honest talent identification. Not everyone who performs well today will lead well tomorrow. A disciplined assistant manager may be weak in people handling.
A brilliant engineer may struggle with budgets. A charming executive may be allergic to detail. A high-potential officer may still need more exposure.
Succession planning must be more than a name in a file. It must involve training, exposure, delegation, coaching, assessment and trust. It must give promising people room to grow, room to be tested and room to make manageable mistakes before the stakes become too high.
Too often, the default solution is staff pinching by dangling a higher post, bigger salary and better perks to lure talent from another company.
If the owner or top leader does not do it directly, a head-hunting agency is hired to fish from the same pond. It may solve today’s vacancy. But if the same tactic is used against the same organisation tomorrow, we will call it a headache, not talent strategy.
This is short-termism dressed in recruitment clothing. It moves people around the industry, but does not grow the industry’s bench. The real task is not merely to poach the next manager, but to prepare and retain the next generation.
Before memory retires
Succession planning has two clocks. One is the long clock - grooming future leaders over years. The other is the emergency clock - what happens if a CEO, estate director, mill head, sustainability lead or family patriarch is suddenly unavailable tomorrow.
A mature organisation needs both. The first protects the future. The second protects the morning after.
Succession planning should not depend only on oral tradition. Too much plantation knowledge still lives in notebooks, memories, WhatsApp messages and the instincts of one senior person. Companies must document what matters: block histories, replanting lessons, contractor performance, mill weaknesses, community sensitivities and crisis responses. Wisdom should be respected, but also recorded before it retires.
Preparing talent is only half the battle. Retaining them is the other half.
A company cannot complain about staff pinching if it has trained people well but given them no pathway, voice, fair reward or reason to stay. Loyalty is earned by opportunity, trust and a future worth believing in.
Culture matters too. A company may have the best succession chart in the world, with colourful boxes and impressive arrows pointing to the future.
But if young managers are punished for initiative, mocked for asking questions or trained only to obey, the chart is merely decoration.
Succession does not grow in a culture of fear. It grows where people are stretched, corrected, trusted and allowed to think.
A young manager who is never allowed to decide will never develop judgement. A capable deputy who is constantly second-guessed will eventually stop leading and start waiting.
Some organisations weaken their own bench this way. They say they want successors, but reward only compliance. They speak of empowerment, but pull back authority at the first discomfort. Over time, the brightest keep quiet, the cautious survive and the ambitious look elsewhere.
Governance must grow up too
Boards also have a duty. Succession planning is not gossip over lunch. It is governance. It should be a standing board agenda, not a sentimental discussion near retirement.
Boards should review critical roles, readiness levels, retention risks and development progress regularly. What gets measured gets managed. What is merely mentioned is too easily forgotten after lunch.
A board that does not ask about leadership pipeline is like an estate owner who never asks about replanting age profile. It may look polite for a while, but biology and time are not impressed by politeness.
For listed companies, investors should ask better questions: How deep is your management bench? How many estate, mill and C-suite roles have ready successors? What is your technical knowledge-transfer plan? How many young managers leave within five years, and why?
For family businesses, the conversation must be brave but respectful. A founder should not wait until the family WhatsApp group becomes the succession committee. Ownership, management and family roles must be separated clearly.
If no family member is ready or willing, appointing a professional should not be seen as betrayal. Sometimes, the best way to protect family legacy is to let capable non-family professionals manage it.
For government-linked and state-linked plantation entities, succession planning must balance merit, representation and public trust.
For smaller estates, it may mean professionalising management, forming clusters, sharing technical services or entering transparent management agreements.
Different ownership structures require different succession models. But all require honesty. The worst model is silence.
Replanting people
There is a plantation phrase hidden here: field readiness. Before planting, we prepare the field. Before replanting, we plan the cycle. Before harvesting, we organise labour, roads and transport.
Yet before leadership change, too many companies still depend on hope, habit and the health of one senior gentleman with three phones.
Hope is not succession planning. Habit is not governance. Three phones are not a leadership pipeline.
The plantation sector has entered an age where the old heroic model is no longer enough. The future requires teams, systems, data, discipline and communication. It needs leaders who respect tradition but are not trapped by it.
Succession planning will never be perfect. Some choices will disappoint, some talents will leave, some seniors will struggle to let go, and some juniors will discover that the chair they wanted is hotter than expected. But not planning is worse.
In oil palm, productivity begins with good planting material, field standards and timely operations.
The same applies to institutions. Leadership must be selected, planted, nurtured, pruned, tested and renewed.
A company that replants palms but not people is only half-prepared for the future.
One day, every senior planter must hand over the field book. Every CEO must leave the boardroom. Every technical guru must pass on the knowledge.
The best legacy is not to make oneself irreplaceable. It is to ensure the estate, mill, company, agency, association, supply chain and people can still stand tall after one walks away.
And on that final walk, perhaps with cleaner boots, less cooperative knees and fewer phone calls, the old planter may look back and smile.
The palms are still there. The crop is still coming. The mill is still running.
And someone capable is already walking the rounds - not only in the estate, but across the whole value chain.
Joseph Tek Choon Yee has over 30 years experience in the plantation industry, with a strong background in oil palm research and development, C-suite leadership and industry advocacy. The views expressed here are the writer’s own
