Dear Bigb4u7,
It appears that you have confusion between succession planning and career planning. Former is for grooming a person for the position of CEO of becoming board member. Latter is to groom employee so that he/she can execute job of senior position effectively.
Secondly, principles of succession planning do change as per industry or company.
Call me on my mobile and we will discuss it further.
All the best!
Dinesh Divekar