Succession planning is simply put the planning of who is to replace a leader or key person once that person is gone. In many public and official roles, succession planning is written into the ‘law’ or into core procedure. Royalty have a defined process to appoint a replacement, politics has its own process … In business we too need to succession plan to ensure continuity and longevity of the business.
Another aspect to succession planning is when owner-managed businesses are involved. In these type of businesses, the fact that the owner is also the person leading the business tends to create an added layer of ‘complexity‘ in that it makes it more difficult for the owner to look at growing an ‘outsider‘ to manage the business. It also typically means that the owner/manager tends to have a high degree of emotional attachment to the business making such discussions more complicated. Having said all this, CMG Consulta typically get into deep and frank discussions with the owner manager in order to empower the person to make this change and start the process of planning a success that handles the family/ownership aspects as well as the business/management aspects in parallel. These succession planning aspects tend to be more challenging due to their delicate discussions and negotiations yet they are extremely rewarding when we are able to eventually work towards managing the change and reaching new horizons with the owner.