One of the biggest concerns of successful business founders is how to hand over their businesses to their children and the coming generations.
Founders are worried if their adult children would be willing to carry on the family business and score greater successes. They want their companies to be handed from one successive generation to the other so that strangers will not inherit their companies.
All things being equal, here is how a founder can hand over a family business to children or other coming generations with ease:
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See succession as a process and not a single event
Business succession is not just a one-day affair; it is a lifelong process that should have begun long before the inheritors are even aware of their fate.
As a parent and founder who desires to hand over his business to successive generations, you must begin to lay the groundwork while the children are still young. You must begin to groom them to what their future is and what roles lie ahead for them in the family business; just as a young prince is groomed for future kingship.
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Let the potential beneficiaries acquire outside experience
It is true that your children will be inheriting your company and starting from where you left off, but it is good to prepare them for the roles ahead by getting them to first work elsewhere.
As soon as your children graduate from school, you can get them to work elsewhere so that they can know what it means to work under another boss and lead a team. When the beneficiaries work 3-5 years at another company under a related position, they can bring back the skills to work at your own company before climbing up the ladder.
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Encourage them to acquire complementary skills
While it is important that your children obtain external experience, it is also crucial that they acquire supplementary skills to help with their position in your company. For instance, if they had been working in marketing, then they might as well learn additional skills related to market segmentation and break-even analysis.
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Let them grow through the ranks
Except your children had occupied managerial positions in their former places of work, it’s of no use to make them managers when they join your company.
It is best for them to join at the mid-level and work their ways up the promotion ladder – this way they can genuinely earn the respect of their colleagues and other workers. They would have made their mark before becoming managers and directors and eventual owners of the company.
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Start them with old mentors
It is good for children who would become business owners to get trained by mentors who understand the operations and visions of the business.
It is best if the mentor is the most valuable, loyal, secure, and long-lasting employee. Although it is possible for the mentor or other old employees to think they are the most suitable to lead the company, you must let them understand that they either cooperate with your designate or resign honorably.
The bottom line is to plan ahead. This will make things easy when you come to each bridge. There are companies around the world that have been handed down to up to the 15th generation and some of them even started operations over a century ago.
You can successfully hand over your business to your children and grandchildren if you have groomed them ahead for the role and manipulated circumstances to work together for their growth and leadership.