In what has become no less than a family business endemic, some 50% of small to mid-sized business owners in North America report having no current plan for succession.
This promises to perpetuate the unfortunate incidence of catastrophic value losses for many family businesses. And since family businesses have been responsible for 85% of all U.S. jobs created from 2000 onward, it could also be devastating for the entire U.S. economy.
Business founders are implored to just let it go—to relinquish their clutch on the reins of power. They are also urged to professionalize and prepare the management ranks for the handoff. And they are warned of the risks and burdens that spouses may come to bear should calamity befall them.
Yet, statistics show that these exhortations don’t seem to “move the needle” when it comes to prompting founders into right action. Notwithstanding their tenacious grip, some 88% of business owners—the most committed of whom are now studying Family Business at Hult—say they foresee their families carrying on the business five years and more downstream, as reported by the Family Business Institute.
“Some 88% of business owners say they foresee their families carrying on the business five years downstream.”
Falling into the “reality gap”
In the chasm between these high expectations and the absence of a plan we trip and fall into the “reality gap“—the underlying cause for the prevailing “succession gap.”
But the gaps don’t stop here. The reality gap is a byproduct of the “I’m-not-sure-what-to-do” gap. Aren’t we all too familiar with that one? It’s the gap that suspends action. The one that leaves us stuck.
And because matters of succession entangle the personal and emotional sides of family life with the operational and financial sides of the family business, yet another gap widens from deep within—the one at the core of all stuck-ness in the world. That is, the “I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it” gap.
If a business founder is anxious about what life would be like after a transfer of power, or has doubts about the readiness (or appreciation) of the next generation, or is just plain vexed about the business in general but has somehow always managed to see it through by themselves, the compound chain of “gaps” can be disabling.
And national statistics will continue to foreshadow the tale of those unable or unwilling to act.
“If a business founder is anxious about what life would be like after a transfer of power, the compound chain of ‘gaps’ can be disabling.”
So when seasoned owners are urged to take immediate action, to name that successor, to put down the phone and back away from the big desk chair, and put a transition plan in motion, these demands appear before them like a mountain of emotional toil and risk. Suspended by the mountain, they become the 50%ers noted above—with business continuity threatened, and with family wealth exposed to a single stroke of bad luck.
And the committed “next-gens,” like the Hult graduate students who are currently studying the art and science of Family Business, are the future leaders we risk never knowing.
An indirect and gentler way to help business owners get unstuck
Are present business founders and leaders to blame for their immobilization? After all, aren’t these the kind of people who start businesses, cope with uncertainty, and overcome obstacles? Or might we be wiser to put the onus on the same old solutions imposed upon them, and apply a different tack?
Considering a less resistant path, we might ask: What are business owners able to talk about with emotional ease? Answer: The business.
And: What do business owners know how to do, in order to move the business forward? Take planned, incremental, action.
Finally: What do business owners readily seek when they need to take action? Information.
Altogether, this begs one big question for business advisers, like those of us at Newport Board Group who serve these owners: Why not apply the insights that “gap theory” reveals and offer a path of least resistance that leverages all three? The unemotional, the actionable, and the informational.
What follows are suggestions for how we might pave an un-stuck pathway to generating properly planned successions. Successions that prepare for unforeseen calamity, that keep the family moving conversationally in the direction of power-transfer readiness, that preserve hard-earned wealth, and that keep the business vital in continued service to the world.
Our gap-closing algorithm:
1. Keep it out of the emotional cauldron
Rather than prematurely name a successor, why not name a “placeholder” until a successor is ready?
Who could the owner rely on to execute a set of pre-registered instructions for what to do with the business should the owner be separated from the action due to illness, death, or come-what-may? Respected allies, business partners, long-standing board members are all viable options to consider for the interim executor.
Would this not aid in fostering more patient and unemotional conversations with offspring or with wider members of the family as to who might be next, and what they may need to do to be ready?
2. Take small action in the direction of bigger action
What would be the owner/leader’s instructions for the business should the worst occur? Sale or exit? Continue on?
How would vendors, customers, and employees be informed and kept engaged? What is the 2-3 year vision for the business, based on current performance and the plans that are in place?
Working with someone to produce this set of contingencies can make hills out of mountains, and be freeing and comforting for the leader of any family business.
3. Gather information about the business, and keep it coming
What would someone with temporary executive custodianship need to know about the business to perform his or her assigned task?
How could that knowledge be kept up-to-date until such time as a permanent successor is ready to be put in place? How might this objectively collected information also serve those who run the business today—and crisp up targets for tomorrow?
“Make information the enabler it can be for tomorrow’s business—today.”
In summary, the three keys to closing the great family business succession gap and for treating—less confrontationally—all the gaps that serve to block the path forward are:
- De-emotionalize the succession matter
- Take incremental action, not mountain-sized leaps
- Make information the enabler it can be for tomorrow’s business—today
Business-focused, incremental, and informed actions serve to free owners from being stuck and deal more gradually with succession, de-risking the hard-earned value of so many job-producing family businesses nationwide.
And the path opens for Hult’s “next-gen” students to become this generation’s business leaders.
Download a brochure to find out how Hult International Business School can help you to develop the leadership skills and entrepreneurial mindset needed to help your family business thrive for future generations.
Hult offers a range of highly skills-focused and employability-driven business school programs including a range of MBA options and a comprehensive one year Masters in International Business. To find out more, take a look at our blog Should you choose a Master of International Business or MBA program? Download a brochure or get in touch today to find out how Hult can help you to learn about the business world, the future, and yourself.
