The 5 Critical Succession Conversations: A Comprehensive Guide for the Family Business

By Rochelle Clarke

Are you struggling with telling your family that you do not want to work in the family business? Do you struggle with convincing your family business to try new ideas or innovations? As the owner, are you struggling with surrendering control to your successors? Do you need more separation between the business and your personal life?

Successfully navigating the succession process within a family business requires a delicate touch. In this book, we explore the difficult conversations that you may encounter along the transition journey and help you anticipate and plan for them with minimal stress. With the goal of maintaining strong family and business relationships while effectively addressing tough subjects, we cover common issues like:
- establishing boundaries to preserve business and personal life
- declining an offer to lead the family business
- changing the business vision or ways of working under new leadership
- convincing the business to try new innovations or ideas
- asking for more freedom make your mark
- addressing poor performance

Brought to you by Succession Strength’s top team of business experts including an organizational psychologist, The 5 Critical Succession Conversations: A Comprehensive Guide for the Family Business smooths your succession journey and ensures that your business not only survives, but thrives for generations to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Sep 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732610910

Book preview

The Five Critical Succession Conversations:

A Comprehensive Guide for the Family Business

© 2018 Succession Strength. All rights reserved.

Published by Succession Strength, 2018

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.

Names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

To assess your business’ succession readiness, an accompanying assessment could be found at www.successionstrength.com/assessment.

For bulk orders, contact us at [e-mail]

First edition.

ISBN (Print): 978-1-7326109-0-3

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-7326109-1-0

The Five Critical Succession Conversations

A Comprehensive Guide for the Family Business

By Rochelle Clarke

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One – How to Navigate This Book

Navigation Guide

Part Two – The Conversations

Conversation One: The Foundation

Scenario One: Are we a match?

Conversation Two: The Owner’s Decision

Scenario Two: You are the successor; your area of expertise is similar to mine

Scenario Three: You are the successor; your area of expertise is different from mine

Scenario Four: You are not the successor; there is another role for you

Scenario Five: You are not the successor; there is no other role for you

Scenario Six: You are not the successor; we will  hire externally

Scenario Seven: I am in the early stages of narrowing a wide field of potential successors

Conversation Three: The Successor’s Decision

Scenario Eight: I do not want to run the business; I am interested in having a role in it

Scenario Nine: I do not want to run the business; I am not interested in having a role in it

Conversation Four: Performance

Scenario Ten: I am passing the business to multiple successors, each with a substantial role

Scenario Eleven: I need more support in this new role.

Scenario Twelve: I have little freedom to execute because of your presence

Scenario Thirteen: You (successor) are underperforming

Scenario Fourteen: We need to innovate or the business will suffer

Scenario Fifteen: Your new vision will kill my business

Scenario Sixteen: This business is taking over my life

Conversation Five: The Exit

Scenario Seventeen: I am selling the business

Scenario Eighteen: You should sell the business

Conclusion

Our Framework

About The Author

Want more?

Introduction

Good morning; this is 57665, how may I help you? the slightly nasal, imitation secretary voice inquired before the phone could ring a third time. Always before the third ring.

This is not the typical greeting that you would expect to come from the mouth of a seven-year-old, but, in our household, we all answered the business phone professionally. My parents are both veterinarians. My mother owned and ran the local animal clinic, while my father lent his expertise on an as-needed basis when larger livestock were involved. A critical point in my life, and subsequent career path, came in high school at the age of about thirteen; I, along with my peers, would choose the academic subjects we would concentrate on as a precursor to university studies and an eventual career in the selected area. My older brother chose science as a precursor to medicine and would volunteer or be invited to observe my parents as they treated animals. I was more interested in commercial pursuits and chose business. 

My parents always gave us the freedom to choose our academic and career paths, so there was never the element of pressure. The family business supported us modestly as we progressed through high school and then moved on to university. One day, after my first year of university, I sat with my father to discuss how my studies were progressing and what my plans were for the future. I had done a few science courses during my first year of university—a time when, in American