Succession Planning

Succession is perhaps the biggest challenge facing entrepreneurs particularly in family businesses. Thomas Zellweger offers a six step process for them...

IEDP Editorial

Monday 17 July 2017

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There are two dimensions to succession planning in businesses – leadership succession and ownership succession.

In the short video below, Thomas Zellweger, Professor of Business Administration at the University of St.Gallen, a specialist in family business, considers these two different forms of succession and explains why businesses should follow this six-step-process:

Defining succession to whom – taking account of the generational time frame
Establishing what is being transferred – is the business in a form ready to pass on?
Planning the transfer of governance – changing CEO, board, and equity
Setting a price – implications for the successor and vendor
Ways to finance the transfer – private equity, vendor loans, banks loans etc.
Addressing tax and legal issues – asset transfer and inheritance tax implications

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