As fewer and fewer entrepreneurial children want to take over their parents’ businesses, the framework conditions for successful business successions are deteriorating. Our author Ingo Claus names the problems in an interview with the NOZ and gives tips on how to solve them. Now read five of the other measures mentioned in the interview to defuse the ticking demographic time bomb of company succession and ensure long-term company success.

With the ageing of the baby boomers, a wave of successions is rolling towards Germany. Thus, many regions are facing a shortage of entrepreneurs. Many over-50s will have to start thinking about handing over their businesses to younger hands in the next five to ten years. But: often the children have completely different goals than their parents.

1. good preparation is essential for successful business successions

Ingo Claus therefore recommends planning company succession strategically and in good time. Successful succession projects take an average of one to three years and the trend is rising. From a demoscopic point of view alone, the number of companies in need of succession is growing steadily, while the number of buyers continues to decline. We already have a buyer’s market, Claus notes.

2. choose the right time

Entrepreneurs sometimes work until their mid- to late 70s, and it is highly risky to deal with the issue only at the end of one’s career. Practice clearly shows that the chances of successful business succession are significantly lower then. Ideally, planning should start now.

3. do not underestimate the family problem

Claus also points out the importance of role conflicts in the family business. These could be avoided at an early stage if the different roles were recognised and clarified. The senior is a rational entrepreneur on the one hand and an emotionally active father on the other. There is a constant change of perspective. Especially in family businesses, this can lead to conflicts. Here it often helps to involve a moderator experienced in intra-family generational changes. He recognises such conflicts and knows how to solve them.

4. create clear structures for the transition

Should senior and junior act together, it is always advisable to have a written handover schedule in which milestones of the handover of responsibility and assets are defined. It must therefore be clear that the senior retires from control on a fixed day X and then behaves accordingly towards the employees.

5. demonstrate professionalism to prospective buyers

It is very worthwhile to be informed about potential buyer groups and their motives and to prepare the succession in the long term.

Because if prospective buyers do not receive a structured, professional first impression, they will also quickly turn away. Companies that are mediocre and poorly prepared will then have a really hard time making it in times of the Lack of entrepreneurs Finding buyers.

Source: You can find the original interview in the business newspaper of the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung from 16.12.2016 on p. 16. You can download the business newspaper including the complete interview here Download free of charge.