The recent news that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was stepping down from his currentposition roiled Wall Street, the media and the business communitywith speculation on whether the tech giant can sustain itscompetitive and innovative supremacy after the transition.

You may not be Steve Jobs or your agency an Apple, but the topicraises some interesting points about what independent insuranceagency principals should know to ensure a graceful exit and thesubsequent survival of their businesses–whether it's a plannedretirement or an unexpected personal or medical situation like Jobsfaces.

We spoke with several agency management experts about theparallels between Jobs's departure and how agency principals cansoften the blow for their own imminent transitions. Here are sometakeaways:

1. You're more like Steve Jobs than you think.Steve Jobs is a technological innovator who heads up a globalcorporation that now officially has more money than the U.S. Treasury; you run an independentinsurance agency that sells risk management products and services.But just as the idiosyncratic Jobs was synonymous with Apple, manyagency principals, especially the small to midsized family-runshops, have similarly forged the agency's image over the years andbranded the agency with their personalities.

“Typical agency owners are entrepreneurial, creative, innovativeand kind of a contrarian—characters in their own right who createbrand recognition in their communities,” said JohnWepler, president of MarshBerry. “Individuals like thatare a tough act to follow. Even though your business is thebyproduct of all your efforts, it won't be sustainable unless youbuild in a process-driven way to let go over time.”

A typical midsized agency's “persona” usually reflects one ortwo key principals (usually ego-driven, Type A personalities) whobecome the business's public face, said TimCunningham, president of OPTIS Partners LLC. “Smart agencyowners position the agency as an entity to get equal billing as thestrong principal. The best-case scenario is when the agency's ownidentity is stronger than the individual's.”

2. Start planning early. Apple took years tobuild the bench strength that will assume control after Jobs isgone; agencies should do the same. “Seventy-five percent ofagencies sell rather than perpetuate because there is no short-termurgency to plan ahead,” Wepler said. “Steve Jobs didn't kick thecan down the road and neither should you.”

Successful agency perpetuation takes a minimum of 5 to 10 yearsto get into place, and requires use of the PACTplan: people, agency, capital base andtime, Cunningham said. “Aside from a tragedy like death orillness, most plans fail because the people are not in place. Also,owners must recognize that the agency's valuation must berealistic—in most cases the internal value will be less than what athird-party buyer will pay.”

Cunningham suggests preparing for your exit by working backward:“If you want to be out in 15 years, start planning now. It's a muchstronger plan if you execute it over 15 years than over 5.Succession planning is a process, not an event.”

The worst-case scenario is the agency without a perpetuationplan and the owner who plans to “run it 'til I die,” then plans onhanding the business off to a child or a best friend, saidDemmie Hicks, president of DBH Consulting. “This maysatisfy the agency's financial value, but it doesn't address thefuture of the organization or the people in it; just that it willeventually be sold.”

The best-case scenario is the agency that makes successionplanning part of its overall strategic plan, she said. “Someorganizations think about and plan to do it, meaning they haveleadership development as part of their strategic plan and know whothe future leaders are. But the ideal situation is where thecurrent leaders have identified the potential leadership team. Toomany organizations don't do that, which results in an agency thathas no choice but to sell or have a different exit strategy.”

3. Put the right people in place. Just asincoming Apple CEO Tim Cook spent years running the company's day-to-dayoperations as COO, successful agency ownership transitions involveidentifying and grooming the business's future leaders.

“Steve Jobs can perpetuate because of the process he wentthrough to determine what unique skill sets he had to transition,then evaluated whether Apple's existing staff had those functions.If they didn't, he hired,” Wepler said.

“Apple had everything in place so that the day Jobs steppedback, the succession plan was already laid out and everyoneunderstood it,” Cunningham said. “This doesn't happenaccidentally.” And just as Apple didn't rely on trying to find aSteve Jobs clone to replace the outgoing CEO, agency managementtransition is usually more successful when the successor doesn'ttry to emulate his predecessor's management style.

“You'll need other key people to pick up the slack with thepublic-facing stuff the principal used to do,” Cunningham said.“Warren Buffet says his board knows his successor is one of threepeople, who are already in place. Just as a public company needs amanagement succession plan, so should private companies.”

Succession planning starts with scrutinizing the voids in theagency's management and recruiting individuals based on the tasksthat are needed, transitioning from an individual focus to a teamapproach. (At Apple, Cook's supporting team includes Jonathan Ive,who oversees Apple product design; Ron Johnson, who runs Apple'sstores; marketing chief Philip Schiller, and Scott Forstall, whosupervises the iPhone software.)

“The agency principal needs to expand the leadership circle;instead of one to three trusted advisors, they should have a dozen,even if it's a small firm,” Hicks said. She points to a client firmthat started perpetuation planning and employee development 10years ago. The firm has successfully moved through its secondinternal perpetuation involving both financial perpetuation and asuccession of leaders. “The CEO, a figurehead and larger-than-lifevisionary, stepped up to chairman and doesn't drive the strategyanymore. The CEO was really groomed along with those around him forthe past six years,” she said.

4. Institutionalize the brand. A successfulbusiness's future must continue after the departure of even themost visionary of leaders, said Terry Connelly, dean of the AgenoSchool of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. “Acompany is dependent on its ability to institutionalize that geniusin the corporate DNA.”

Once an agency has the right people in place, the principal canbegin to transfer account relationships as the first step toinstitutionalizing the brand by transitioning to a team approach.Wepler recommends using an “activity inventory” to pinpoint theprincipal's tasks. At age 45 or 50, the principal commits to makinga list of everything he or she does in the organization over aperiod of 30 days, no matter how minute. Then the principal ranksthese activities from the simplest to most difficult to delegate,determining whether or not there is someone currently in theorganization who can assume each task.

For example, a retiring CEO who for 25 years had personallyhandled the agency's largest account ($1 million in annual revenue)knew he wanted to retire in six years, Wepler said. He begantransitioning the process by hiring a young producer and losscontrol expert to move the interpersonal relationship to a teamapproach. Within two years, the CEO had taken a back seat to theyounger team members, transitioning to a “relationship manager”position. “It took service to a higher level than ever,” Weplersaid.

5. Communicate the plan. If an agencyprincipal is 63 years old, employees will wonder what will happenwhen he retires. “They'll take great comfort in knowing things willgo on, so keep them in the loop,” Cunningham said. “Start out withvery general information, then roll out more specifics as the plansfirm up.”

“Steve Jobs had come in and out of Apple so many times that thecompany must have known there would be a day when he would step outcompletely,” Hicks said. “Transparency about his plans wasimportant for stability and job retention. It's not common foragents to be transparent about their plans in times of transition,but it's important to share what's happening; it strengthens theorganization.”

Customers also need to know there will be continuity after aprincipal departs. “Most large commercial accounts developed by astrong agency principal are going through the same successionissues as the agency,” Cunningham said. “By bringing in youngerleadership, the agency is ensuring that the younger people at thecustomer's business will have someone of their generation to workwith as well.”