Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman has advice for how companies should go about high-stakes succession planning. Schwarzman said that when he and Tony James selected Jon Gray to be Blackstone's next president, they initially kept it a secret from everyone but Gray so that the younger executive would have time to grow into the role. The Blackstone founder also said he thinks it's counterproductive for companies to set up a public competition between senior executives in order for one of them to win the role. Click here for more BI Prime content.