Succession or Promotion?: A new outlook into succession planning

By Hamilton Ibanes

It shouldn't be like this, but a Founder's succession in a company signals a not-so-generous change in command. It feels as if someone who had been the topmost representative of a company until "yesterday" is being ejected, or even expelled from the organization, no matter how big or a small your business is. Lack of planning and empathy, which causes trauma and veritable nightmares during such a transition, occurs in small, medium, or large companies.
THIS BOOK'S GOAL IS TO BREAK THAT PARADIGM.
From traditionally passing on the scepter as an act of succession and replacement, to the promotion of a Founder, who has set up a company that generates wealth to many families, to a city, a state, a country, or the whole world...
Our proposal is to prepare Founders for the ongoing journey of life with new challenges and to sensitize successors so they can recognize the Founder's legacies, and choose to take over their responsibilities and follow their steps, or do even better, with that which has been built.
A successful succession plan will foster harmony within the family, support the prearranged agreements among partners, and enable successors to have an outstanding performance.
The invitation is to harmony. Let's cheer for the Founders and their brilliance. Let us cast a challenging look on the succession of those men and women who have been dutifully promoted to a new age in their lives.
Enjoy your promotions, and your reading!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ás Editorial
• Release date: Jul 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9786586369410

Book preview

Introduction

"A single moment may change a day.

A day may change a life.

A life may change the world."

Buddha

My childh oo d’s exper ie nces, abundantly m ea ningful and thrilling, are my recurring s ou rce of inspirat io n for g oo d and grand purposes. It is amazing how the things that were lived by such a y ou ng person have b ee n conducive of my profess io nal activit ie s in the last few y ea rs.

My family history has made me strongly connected and emphatic to many other families that I can help today. I clearly remember examples of next of kin. They were groundbreaking, successful entrepreneurs who had provided for their own families and several others, and at the end of their journey could enjoy the benefits of their efforts. However, they were hardly recognized in their lifetimes. I have seen a great number of companies discard their founders as if they had become obsolete products. As they aged, they were literally put aside.

That being said, the idea of this book is to demystify this unkind practice. As human longevity increases worldwide, men and women who were founders may definitely keep on contributing to their companies, and they can do it even after handing over their Scepter, so to speak, the topmost representation in succession.

I firmly believe that chronological age has little to do with people’s ability to update themselves and never stop contributing to the makings of a better world. And this had made me think of ways in which we can recognize and treat with dignity and respect those people who started out from nothing and have, nevertheless, created wealth for society. This book is the result of those reflections, the conception that human nature needs security, tenderness, a friendly shoulder, from its birth to its final breath. A baby will feel safe in its mother’s lap. On the highways of our lives, the need is reversed: the baby has become an adult and will lavish another being with tenderness and understanding, offering a safe shelter to someone who needs it.

A Founder’s condition is very similar. More often than not, succession represents the moment when the Founder feels abandoned, fragile, vulnerable. Founders are those who have provided comfort and security, created jobs, supported families, contributed to society; and all of a sudden they find themselves at fate’s mercy. But that feeling will only come when there’s no safe, honest or fair plan in sight.

The framework for this thought is the principle that each individual must think of his or her life as a living organism. Besides ethical principles, people need to be economically stable so they can be emotionally balanced once their physical and mental activity slows down.

Preparation must get started really early. The entrepreneurial cycle is strongly attached to the pendulum of existence. So the sooner a Founder plans a safe, correct and worthy way to step down the stage, the greater will be the legacy to society from those men and women.

Shall we begin our journey?

Have a nice trip!

Chapter 1

FOUNDER’S PROFILE

"Everyone is responsible for modeling

out mankind’s future.

We should therefore contribute

to it as best as we can."

Dalai-Lama

Before we analyze the F ou nder’s profile more d ee ply, it is imperative we understand that humans find self-analysis something of a puzzle, as we are slow to recognize ou r strengths and w ea knesses. We find it hard to l oo k d ee p into ou rselves, and we unconsc i o u sly project ou r problems into somebody else, or in the market ou t there, in the competit io n. When l ea dership comes from a family-owned company, those factors are magnif ie d and may be perpet ua ted thr ou gh several generat io ns.

What truly intervene in an individual’s full deportment are his or her surroundings. After all, education is based upon principles that have been handed down from one generation to the next. That is how the features of an entrepreneur or a pioneer will be passed on to the young generations in the present world’s Startups.

Bain & Company’s recent research (2016), as depicted in Chris Zook and James’ The Founder’s Mentality, confirms that the great entrepreneurial challenges are internal and far less visible than the external occurrences, such as the coronavirus crisis, for instance.

Unprecedented

A Founder’s major stimulation is his or her intemperate, pioneering attitude to believe in something that nobody else has yet tried. This can be translated as boldness, aggressiveness, courage, or an entrepreneurial spirit. Indeed, when you start from scratch, you are actually driven by an unshakeable faith in your ability to meet any challenge, and by your ambition and undaunted desire to make things happen.

Confidence is equally vital. The Founder is someone who believes in him/herself and is greatly motivated to march ahead. Founders invest in their dreams. They rise after inevitable falls. Founders run businesses that supply the needs of a great many people – sometimes very basic needs.

That is why one must proceed with caution. The same confidence that led young entrepreneurs to the full realization of their dreams may be totally lost if they are not prepared for the moment when Creator and Creature must part.

It is a highly delicate and widely studied issue. In his book The Hero’s Farewell – What Happens When CEOs Retire, Jeffrey Sonnefeld shows the result of his research on the profiles of Founders/CEOs. The book gives you a better comprehension of that process and helps you pave the way for succession.

According to the author, some Founders/CEOs choose their successors wisely. Others, however, resist progress and must be forced to leave, which could be traumatic both for the individual and the