PepsiCo’s approach to succession planning can be boiled down to four fundamental stages, said David Henderson, the company’s senior vice president, chief talent development officer.

1. Needs assessment: “That’s planning the size and shape of our talent demands and connecting [it] firmly back to our business strategy,” Henderson said.

2. Gap analysis: This step examines the organization’s talent pipeline to determine supply versus demand.

“That’s the bridge looking at the needs of the business with measures in terms of capability and where we’ll need the talent, both to secure our leadership pipeline for the future, but also to secure the capabilities that we need for the organization moving forward,” he said. “Gap analysis is how we look at that against the current state of the organization.”

3. Broaden, buy, bond: Once the gap has been identified, PepsiCo leverages what it refers to as the three Bs of talent management to close it.

• Broaden — “How are we going to broaden the talent that we have? How are we going to develop our internal talent to maximize potential?” Henderson said.

• Buy — “Where do we want to hire external talent into the organization to diversify existing capabilities and plug gaps that we believe we can bridge internally?”

• Bond — How do talent leaders retain key talent for the long term? “How do we use financial and non-financial measures to make sure we have a secure supply of talent?” he said.

4. Measure: “How do we track and monitor progress and make sure we’re driving continuous improvement as we build our leadership teams around the globe?” Henderson said.

More than a year ago, the snacks, food and beverage conglomerate rolled out its 10-year career plan model as a means to engage its highest-potential, highest-priority talent.

“More recently [we’ve] put a lot more focus on the individual career plans and trying to tie individual, personal considerations into those career plans,” Henderson said. “It has given our talent a sense of what the long term looks like, and it’s also encouraging us to be bold and proactive in terms of applying a ‘future-back’ mindset and mapping out how we make the required critical experiences happen.”