Should You Promote Internally or Hire From the Outside?
When a critical role opens up, one of the first decisions leadership needs to make is whether the right person is already inside the organization—or whether it's time to look outside.
Promoting internally can preserve institutional knowledge, strengthen retention and shorten the learning curve. External hires can bring new capabilities, experience and perspective that don't currently exist within the business.
Neither is inherently the better choice.
The right decision depends on what the role needs to accomplish next.
Start With the Role, Not the Candidate
One of the easiest mistakes to make is building the decision around a person.
You have a strong internal employee who seems ready for more responsibility, so the role gets shaped around them. Or an impressive external candidate appears, and suddenly the requirements shift to match their background.
Instead, start by defining what success in the position needs to look like over the next 12–24 months.
Ask:
What problems does this person need to solve?
What capabilities are essential from day one?
Is the function performing well or does it need significant change?
How much industry-specific knowledge is actually required?
Where is the business heading next?
Once those questions are answered, it becomes much easier to determine whether the required experience already exists internally.
When Promoting Internally Makes Sense
Internal promotions can be incredibly effective when the organization already has someone who has demonstrated the ability to operate at the next level.
An internal candidate understands the company's people, processes, customers and history. They have established relationships and can often step into the role with less disruption.
Promotion can also send an important message to the broader team: strong performance creates opportunities.
But tenure shouldn't be mistaken for readiness.
Someone can be exceptional in their current position without necessarily being prepared to lead a larger team, manage a more complex function or make decisions at an executive level.
The question isn't simply whether they've earned a promotion.
It's whether they're equipped for the job that's ahead.
When an External Hire May Be the Better Move
Sometimes the capability the business needs simply doesn't exist internally.
This is particularly common when companies are entering new markets, professionalizing a function, restructuring operations or moving into a different stage of growth.
An external hire can bring experience the organization hasn't encountered before.
Maybe they've scaled a national sales organization. Led a major operational turnaround. Built systems for a much larger business. Navigated international expansion. Or managed through challenges your current team is facing for the first time.
In these situations, hiring externally isn't necessarily a reflection of the existing team's performance.
It's about adding experience that can help the organization get where it wants to go.
Be Careful With the "Fresh Perspective" Argument
Hiring externally for a fresh perspective can sound appealing, but different isn't automatically better.
An external candidate still needs to understand the realities of the organization they're joining.
This is particularly important in cannabis, where regulatory complexity, market dynamics and operational constraints can create a steep learning curve.
The strongest external candidates don't simply arrive with ideas from another company or industry. They understand how to translate their experience into a new environment.
Consider What the Decision Signals to Your Team
Leadership appointments rarely affect only the person getting the job.
If employees consistently see senior positions filled externally, high performers may begin to question whether meaningful advancement is possible within the organization.
At the same time, promoting someone before they're ready can create its own problems—for the individual and the team they're expected to lead.
That makes succession planning important long before a position becomes vacant.
Organizations that regularly identify and develop potential leaders have more options when critical positions open up.
Sometimes the Best Approach Is to Test the Market
You don't always have to decide "internal or external" before beginning the process.
For important leadership and specialized positions, there can be value in evaluating strong internal candidates alongside external talent.
Doing so gives leadership a clearer picture of the available market and provides a useful benchmark for experience, compensation and capability.
The process may confirm that your internal candidate is ready.
Or it may reveal expertise the organization didn't realize it was missing.
Either outcome gives leadership more confidence in the decision.
Make the Decision Based on What's Next
Promoting from within rewards performance, protects institutional knowledge and creates visible career paths.
Hiring externally can introduce new capabilities, challenge existing thinking and bring experience from organizations that have already solved the problems you're facing.
The goal isn't to favour one approach.
It's to understand what the business needs next—and then determine who is best equipped to deliver it.
For critical hires, the strongest question isn't "Who deserves the role?"
It's "Who gives the organization the best chance of succeeding in its next stage?"
