Family Relationship

Succeeding with Succession

Planning for a smooth succession starts with recognizing that it will be one of the most complicated transitions that a family business will experience. The family must also recognize that it is never too early to start discussing succession and that the costs of getting succession wrong will be nothing short of catastrophic for the business. These challenges mean that family members must focus strongly on succession planning, giving it their undivided attention on many occasions. Based on our experience advising family businesses on succession, we have identified ten principles that improve the chances of succeeding with succession.

Start early. Families may hesitate to plan succession because they are uncertain how the interests, choices, and decisions of different family members will play out over years or decades. But succession planning should start as soon as possible despite this uncertainty. Although things may change along the way, leaders can often anticipate the potential scenarios for how the family will evolve. Issues to consider when developing scenarios include the number of children in the next generation and whether those individuals are interested in the family business as a source of full- or part-time employment or purely as an investment. Families should also consider how the scenarios would be affected by marriages or the sudden demise of a family member or potential successor. It is important to plan a succession process and outcome that will work for the different foreseeable scenarios.

Set expectations, philosophy, and values upfront. Although setting expectations, philosophy, and values is central to many family-business issues, we have found that doing so is essential when it comes to succession planning and must be done up front, even if the specific mechanics of succession come later. In our experience, the family businesses that thrive and succeed across generations are those that possess a core philosophy and set of values linked not to wealth creation but to a sense of community and purpose.