We’ve all heard the horror stories about family business transfers that create irreparable damage—parents estranged from children, children at war with siblings, and standoffs that endure for generations. It doesn’t have to be this way! We’ve worked with many families who have moved through business transitions and kept their relationships healthy. While every family is unique, we recommend that leaders take 4 steps to a successful family business transition. 4 Steps to a Successful Family Business Transition: The Foundation for a Successful Transition The transition of a business to an
As a longtime advisor who helps business owners craft plans to put their companies in the hands of successors, I’m often asked questions about how companies can be transitioned to their adult children. Before moving forward, I suggest that there are at least four questions to ask before passing a business to the next generation. Business transitions from one generation to the next are complicated because so much is at stake: owner’s financial and emotional wellbeing, the company’s success, and the wellbeing of the entire family. Yet the goal of
Resilience is a quality we cultivate in ourselves and try to instill in our businesses because the greatest life or business plan in the world can’t prepare us for every tough challenge or unforeseen situation. Well, the ongoing interruptions in the supply chain, the war in Ukraine, continual mutations in the COVID virus, a tight labor market, and rising rates of interest and inflation certainly check many of the tough challenges boxes. What lessons did you learn from the COVID pandemic and how have you positioned your company to meet
Owners wear many hats as they grow their businesses: rainmaker, HR manager, CEO, cheerleader, and director of finance, to name a few. Yet if they are still wearing all these hats as they move toward their business transitions and Next Adventures, that’s a problem. If you don’t cut the ties of dependency between you and your business, you face a huge obstacle on your road to a successful transition. Think for a moment: ???? Does the success of your company depend on your knowledge, skills, relationships, and experience? ???? Does
I spoke recently with the owner of a successful business whose two sons had been active in the company for the 20 or so years since they graduated from college. She told me that it was time for her to start putting the company into their hands, but just thinking about the process made her anxious. I had my suspicions about the causes of her anxiety because I work with owners every day who care deeply about their companies and their relationships. They are successful individuals, confident decision makers and
In my prior post, I wrote about how unspoken expectations, a lack of planning, and an unwillingness to ask for help doomed the transition of a successful business between generations. Today, I share with you another story about an owner who torpedoed her transition when she let her ego determine her legacy. I hope after reading this article, you’ll think about the goals for your business transition: Will it cement your legacy or stroke your ego? Janice owned a consulting company that managed medical practices. Janice ran the company for
Over the past 12 months, I’ve been working with the management team of a company whose newly designated successor / CEO died of COVID. While the death of a successor isn’t a typical transition obstacle, it, like many obstacles, can feel like a dead end. In this article we describe just one tool we use to help you overcome obstacles on your transition journey. Three common transition-related obstacles are: A successor doesn’t accept an owner’s offer to become a successor A key employee quits when not chosen to be a
I’ve always resisted the term ‘consultant.’ Maybe it’s because the old joke pops into my mind that a consultant is the person who removes the watch from your wrist and tells you the time. When I had to pick a title for myself 30 years ago, I gravitated away from consultant and chose Strategist & Transition Guide. Now that The Transition Strategists has expanded, and we focus on cross-generational business transitions, I share that title with all our business succession consultants. You Drive. We support. One of the principles we
In our last post, we asked you to consider two forms of business governance: formal and informal. As transition strategists, see the huge advantages of formal business governance, especially in family businesses and especially before transitions begin. In this article, we approach the topic from a different perspective and ask you to consider the two types of family business governance: the dinner table vs. the board table. The Advantages of Formal Family Business Governance We compare setting up formal governance to setting up a classroom in which peers share perspectives,
