How to get started with company succession

Family businesses are traditionally designed to last for generations. However, such continuity is not a matter of course: in Germany, almost half of family businesses are in the second or third generation, but only around a fifth remain in family hands for longer. Apparently, handing over a business to the next generation is a huge challenge that many business families fail to overcome. This realisation inevitably leads to the question: What does a succession process look like at the end of which the top management of a family business is secured for the future?

This is precisely where the new WIFU practical guide "Successors in the management role - How to successfully start the operational succession" by Egon Zehnder partner Dr Michael Meier and WIFU Foundation Board Member Prof Dr Tom Rüsen comes in. The authors consider three groups of people to be crucial for a successful start to NextGen in company management: the entrepreneurial family, the management team in the company and the advisory and supervisory boards. Each individual group is required to utilise their specific perspectives, skills and roles in order to lead the succession process to success. All three groups must also be prepared to carry out the role changes necessary for a successful business succession, which can sometimes be far-reaching and require intensive yet flexible planning and support.

This makes it clear that handing over the business to the next generation can only succeed if it is understood as a joint project that demands a high degree of flexibility and a sense of responsibility from all those involved. The practical guide explains what needs to be done during the change of roles and beyond, and which approach is promising, using practical and illustrative case studies.

"The continued existence of family businesses across generations requires a carefully planned succession concept that is developed and supported jointly by the family, management and advisory board," says Michael Meier.

"This practical guide is a useful addition to our previous publications on the topic of succession. This will benefit not least all business families who are currently in the middle of a challenging succession process or who still have this ahead of them. I am very pleased about this," adds Tom Rüsen.

The practical guide described and other WIFU publications are available free of charge on the homepage of the WIFU Foundation(www.wifu.de/bibliothek).