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Continuing Your Business Legacy Without a Qualified Successor(s)
October 2, 2007
A few weeks ago one of my partners, Loyd Rawls, wrote about the importance of successors being available, capable, competent and committed. Our experience over the past thirty-four years has been that only 15% of businesses have a successor who possesses the four criteria listed above. As a result, calling upon a single or team of individuals to operate and manage a business temporarily or permanently can be instrumental for continuing to build business value until the designated successor is prepared and ready to assume command of the ship. Utilizing individuals in this capacity is what we call a “Succession Bridge.”
Succession Bridges are instrumental when you want to continue your business legacy but you are in a situation such as:
- Family member or manager successors not quite ready
- Family members too young to even consider the business
- You do not have children or your children are not interested in the business
In addition to the examples listed above, none of us have a guarantee to live another day. You could become disabled or die prematurely. Utilizing a Succession Bridge strategy as a contingency plan, will provide security for your family and all of those who depend upon the business.
Consider the following for applying a Succession Bridge to your situation:
- Make a commitment to address your succession planning.
- Identify potential successors and begin preparing him/her.
- Identify the capable and committed individual(s) for bridging your succession gap.
- Document your core values, core policies and core procedures to ensure continuity of culture.
- Establish appropriate incentives to motivate and retain the selected individual(s) that are serving in a succession bridge capacity.
A succession bridge may just be what the doctor orders to “bridge the gap” until the next generation is ready or in the event you choose to continue the business as a family asset.
My next post will focus on identifying managers for your Succession Bridge.
Posted by Dave Ciambella on October 2, 2007 | Comments (0)
