7. Succession in a World of Change

Timing. As a way of addressing the problem of synchronicity, the gap in time between when strategic change is needed and when a leader is “naturally” ready to move on, we introduce the idea of succession as a continuous process and suggest ways to implement the idea in practice.

Values. In order to be ready for change, family and founder-led businesses need to find a way to bottle the entrepreneurial spirit that got the firm off the ground in the first place. By encouraging and rewarding those individuals who make change their mission, entrepreneurial values contribute to building a pool of potential successors who have skill in creating something new.

Future(s). Family and founder-led businesses traditionally source successors in leadership from a narrow group of individuals. A loose partnership of families or firms gives access to a broader, more diverse pool of leaders that a family or founder-led business can tap as needed, for the firm as a whole, or for part of the firm, with the possibility of splitting off the part that comes under new leadership.