the challenge

Time to let go

Many succession plans in family businesses fall through because the leader is unable to let go of the business. Knowing when to step down is the hardest decision of all. And after years of dedication, your identity has become so intertwined with the business and your loyalty so strong that it is difficult to imagine life without it. A leader who never truly steps aside usually becomes a hindrance to the business. And fails to adequately prepare the next generation for their role.

Together with you, I will explore which factors can help to ensure a healthy succession. I will go through the key questions in a succession process with the outgoing leader, the successors and other stakeholders, focusing on the psychological aspects of succession: letting go – leaving a legacy – embracing something new.

my approach

A path to clarity.

Succession planning can be a difficult process for all sorts of unconscious, hidden reasons. My job is to identify where the blind spots lie. Once these have been brought to light, putting a succession plan in place becomes a very practical matter (and other external advisers come into the picture). The hardest part is often getting to the point where we can have a genuine conversation about emotions. It’s partly about mapping out processes, partly relationship therapy, and partly psychology.

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This process will provide you with:

Insight into the obstacles and resistance to handing over the reins
The suitability and needs of potential successors
What the business and the family need to thrive
Where the interests of the business and the family have become entangled and how we can untangle them
What steps need to be taken

Through an initial round of discussions with you and individual stakeholders within the business (successor, external advisers, management), I will carry out an initial problem analysis. I then translate this into a step-by-step plan, and we hold group discussions to identify where the obstacles lie and how we can work through them. Step by step, we arrive at a concrete handover, with the legal and tax aspects being handled by other advisers.

in summary

Guided succession planning

Who it’s for: owner-CEOs, their successors and family businesses actively working on succession planning.
Duration: 3 to 6 months
Format: several rounds of discussions, problem analysis, step-by-step plan

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Succession in family business

Is the succession in your family business proving difficult? And would you like to know where the real bottlenecks lie? Tailored advice for family businesses where succession is being planned or is already underway.

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