The transfer of a business is a key moment. Prepare your company for a worry-free future: the keys to a successful transfer.
.png)
“The leader does not guide based on what is known, but on what is possible.” Sheryl Sandberg
The transfer of a business is a critical moment—for the leader, their family, the company, and its employees.
It’s a complex process that requires significant preparation and foresight. For the leader, it’s a test, a moment of revelation.
Many topics, including personal ones, must be put on the table. It’s a difficult personal moment involving detachment, shifting posture, and a new life project.
Challenges of Business Transfer
The technical challenges (financial, legal, tax) are often the easiest to address, as specialists exist, and the solutions are well-known. However, the personal, emotional, and family-related challenges are much harder.
The stakes are about oneself, the family, and the company. The vision and ambition of the person transferring the business and the one taking it over.
It is not easy for a leader to "unhook," especially when they are the founder of the business.
Anticipation and preparation are essential.
- The first key challenge is the business continuity and the well-being of the team. What is the best structure for the business? What does it need? How will the business find new momentum? Will the transfer provide long-term sustainability or even acceleration through the infusion of new ideas and energies?
Missing the passing of the baton is a failure for both the business and the leader.
- Next, the family challenge arises: the business's value will suddenly materialize. The family will discover newfound wealth and will have to address the issue of money.
How will they handle it? How will the family’s liquidity be organized?
- The personal challenge involves the leader seeing the transfer as the realization of professional success.
The business sometimes carries their name. How does one detach from it? What’s the personal project after the transfer? When transferring at 60 or 70 years old, there is still a significant life expectancy ahead.
Key Questions to Consider
In the case of an intrafamily transfer, many questions arise: What is being transferred? Is it heritage, leadership style, the family business mission, social responsibility, a history, a business model, a culture, or an ambition?
Are we passing on a name, a brand, an emotion, a team, or a know-how? What is the current financial situation of the company? How does this impact the transfer scenarios? What are the consequences for the company of an industrial sale to a competitor? Or an intrafamily transfer?
Should the operational management of the business be exclusively ensured by a family member? Is it risky for the company to remove itself from family governance?
All these questions must be addressed with the utmost anticipation.
The leader will need to overcome their own denial, starting with the denial that, from a certain age, employees, suppliers, family, and everyone else starts questioning the succession.
What governance will be the most appropriate? Should the selling leader maintain a role in governance? What is the role of a Supervisory Board? Of a Chairman? How does one transition from CEO to Chairman?
Is it preferable for the Chairman to come from outside the company?
Is it beneficial for the company to include independent directors? What happens if the leader passes away prematurely? Should there be an age limit in place?
This webinar tackles these essential questions of business succession openly and without taboos. It is aimed at business owner leaders, buyer leaders, and entrepreneurial families.
Discover our professional coaching offers:
- Leader coaching : for business leaders of all sizes and sectors who are keen to develop their company and themselves.
- Team coaching : to support an executive committee and meet all its needs.
