When Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985, the company’s once-thriving profit margins took a nosedive. Within a year, Apple found itself on the brink of insolvency, losing over a billion dollars. When Jobs returned, he swiftly turned the company’s fortunes around, implementing a robust management structure and cultural norms that still define Apple today. As another expert put it, Jobs had to “revamp” the company.  The cost of failed CEO succession is simply too great to ignore. We’re talking nearly a trillion dollars annually for the S&P 1500 alone. Yet companies often make critical mistakes in CEO succession planning, from…