Creating a Shared Vision

Getting to the heart of successful succession planning 

Succession is the ultimate test of a family business.  When they are successful, family businesses create a level of commitment and love for the business from family members, employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders that non-family businesses can seldom achieve.  The family is perhaps the most reliable of all social structures for transmitting cultural values and practices across generations.

However

• Over 70% of family businesses do not survive to a second generation
• Over 90% do not survive to the third generation

At the heart of succession planning is the notion that a family can create a blueprint for the business which will outline its future strategic direction as well as the ownership and governance structures required for success.  However, long before the details of this blueprint can be filled in, the family members need to formulate a shared dream – an empowering vision of the future, which all family members can embrace and which will form the basis of their collaboration and provide the motivation necessary to carry out the plan.

This session will explore the challenges faced by business families as they move through the life cycles from generation to generation – and will present some of the lessons learned about how to organize and deal with the special dynamics involved with succession and other unique family business issues.

Succession in family business involves the passing of a baton from one generational leader or team of leaders to the next generational leader or team.  The tasks that must be accomplished before one generation can depart and the next generation can take charge, however, vary significantly, depending upon where the transition starts and where it is designed to end.

This workshop will be delivered by

Jim Reger
Co-founder
The Newport Institute - Centre for Authentic Living