Is leadership succession a problem for your company?

Amidst all the sub-prime mortgage mess and panic in the US a subtle detail has been forgotten writes Geoff Colvin, FORTUNE magazine senior editor-at-large.

Here's what I find most shocking about the departures of CEOs Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch and Chuck Prince of Citigroup: Neither company had a successor.

At Merrill Lynch, the search for a new CEO may take weeks to complete. Meanwhile an "interim non-executive chairman" has been appointed to fill the leadership vacuum. The title of the interim position appears to highlight a company in limbo.

At Citigroup, Sir Win Bischoff, head of the European unit, has been appointed as the interim CEO. A long-term replacement for the top position is not yet known.

What is simply stunning is that neither company had a name in an envelope, the person who is chosen and prepped to take over in case the CEO gets hit by a bus.

More stunning is that these companies with tens of thousands of employees are not able to name long-term successors within their ranks. Have they done assessments on potential leaders? Have they developed and coached their strongest employees? Did they provide opportunities for their employees to grow within their organization?

Is your firm doing these things?

FORTUNE published a list of the top companies for leadership development in 2007. Check it out...