Com­pa­ny succession

Se­cu­re a good fu­ture for your com­pa­ny – so that you can re­lax and en­joy your re­ti­re­ment! We will be hap­py to sup­port you with ex­per­ti­se and sensitivity.

Ti­me­ly plan­ning is the key to suc­cess. Com­pa­ny suc­ces­si­on is a sen­si­ti­ve, com­plex and mul­ti-laye­red pro­cess that re­qui­res a plan­ning ho­ri­zon of 5 to 10 ye­ars. This is be­cau­se the­re is much more to think about than just for­ma­li­ties. The first ques­ti­on that needs to be as­ked at an ear­ly stage is: Is my com­pa­ny even at­trac­ti­ve to po­ten­ti­al suc­ces­sors? Is it sta­te of the art and com­pe­ti­ti­ve in the fu­ture? Or is re­or­ga­ni­sa­ti­on work ne­ces­sa­ry? The­se points de­ter­mi­ne the at­trac­ti­ve­ness and va­lue of the com­pa­ny for po­ten­ti­al successors.

Of­ten un­de­re­sti­ma­ted: emo­tio­nal hurd­les and ge­ne­ra­tio­nal dif­fe­ren­ces. In most ca­ses, the out­go­ing ma­na­ging director’s emo­tio­nal at­tach­ment to the com­pa­ny is enorm­ous. Over the past few ye­ars, they have in­ves­ted a gre­at deal of work and pas­si­on in their com­pa­ny, en­du­red ups and downs and gai­ned va­luable ex­pe­ri­ence in the pro­cess. A new ma­na­ging di­rec­tor co­mes with their very own ma­nage­ment style and brings dif­fe­rent ide­as, ex­pe­ri­en­ces and views with them. He may also place his trust in other peo­p­le. In any case, the com­pa­ny will ch­an­ge. For the out­go­ing ma­na­ging di­rec­tor, this me­ans let­ting go, ac­cep­ting ch­an­ge and loo­king for new fields of ac­ti­vi­ty. For the new ma­na­ging di­rec­tor, on the other hand, it is im­portant to learn from the ex­pe­ri­ence and working me­thods of his pre­de­ces­sor and to find his own way. This emo­tio­nal aspect of suc­ces­si­on har­bours enorm­ous po­ten­ti­al for con­flict. This is why sup­port from ex­pe­ri­en­ced me­dia­tors and coa­ches is par­ti­cu­lar­ly useful here.

Suc­ces­si­on wi­thin the fa­mi­ly – a par­ti­cu­lar chall­enge. The al­re­a­dy sen­si­ti­ve suc­ces­si­on si­tua­ti­on be­co­mes even more fra­gi­le when suc­ces­si­on is sought wi­thin the fa­mi­ly. Here, the re­la­ti­onships are much clo­ser and more emo­tio­nal. The fac­tu­al, pro­fes­sio­nal and di­stanced re­la­ti­onship bet­ween two busi­ness part­ners is of­ten overs­ha­dowed by the emo­tio­nal, fa­mi­li­al and clo­ser bond. To en­su­re that busi­ness and fa­mi­ly re­la­ti­onships sur­vi­ve the han­do­ver pro­cess as un­s­ca­thed as pos­si­ble, we re­com­mend con­sul­ting a pro­fes­sio­nal and ex­pe­ri­en­ced advisor.

Other in­te­rest groups (stake­hol­ders). In ad­di­ti­on to the cur­rent and fu­ture ma­na­ging di­rec­tor, a lar­ge num­ber of other groups of peo­p­le (stake­hol­ders) have re­qui­re­ments and ex­pec­ta­ti­ons of the com­pa­ny han­do­ver. The­se must be cla­ri­fied at an ear­ly stage and in­cluded in the pro­cess. The fol­lo­wing in­te­rest groups must be ta­ken into ac­count: The entrepreneur’s fa­mi­ly, share­hol­ders, banks, aut­ho­ri­ties, ma­na­gers, em­ployees, cus­to­mers, sup­pli­ers and sa­les partners.

A con­cre­te sche­du­le pro­vi­des ori­en­ta­ti­on and fa­ci­li­ta­tes the han­do­ver. It is im­portant that the ma­na­ging di­rec­tors in­vol­ved pre­cis­e­ly de­fi­ne and har­mo­ni­se their re­spec­ti­ve goals. Ba­sed on this, a road­map is then drawn up which sets out which me­a­su­res are ne­ces­sa­ry to achie­ve the de­fi­ned goals and by when they will be im­ple­men­ted. This road­map also sets out the con­trac­tu­al and tax-re­la­ted steps for the trans­fer of the company.