Your Advisory Team — Family Business Succession.
Having built a successful business, you will be confident in your ability to make the right decisions. And standing at the starting gate, succession will look like just another project to be commenced and completed.
But the one piece of advice from those who have journeyed through succession for those about to commence, is to find and engage an independent advisor to guide you through the process. And do it before you start.
In succession, what’s your first task? Well, there is preparation, which we’ll look at a bit later, but honestly, I believe the first task is to find your Guide. Someone who will be your independent succession advisor.
It is unlikely that it will be someone who’s sitting at the table with you now. Succession is a specific skill. It’s a specific expertise. It requires experience. It requires a certain lens. It requires a receptiveness and an ability to secure trust from all with whom they engage.
They must be professional, but importantly, they must be and be seen to be independent. Because that independence will allow them to sit with the family group, and other stakeholders, and to hear everyone and to bring all the views to the table and present them to the incumbents, to that managing family at the present time. And then to walk all the stakeholders through the intended process drawing in and responding to all the input they have received.
The importance of this independence, of coming to the table with ‘clean hands’ and be open to hear all views cannot be understated. It is setting the foundation of family harmony and engaging a person who will actively listen to everyone without any bias or judgement.
Your existing advisors — your taxation, your legal advisors, your accountants — will all be at the table supporting the independent succession advisor. But that independent succession advisor is the one who understands the journey and will lead you, your family and your advisory team through the journey.
This brief video clip speaks to the importance of your independent succession advisor:
