The figures from the Institute for SME Research (IFM) in Bonn are clear: by 2018, a good 135,000 family businesses with around two million jobs will have to find a new boss. Ten years ago, two-thirds of the generation change was organised within the family, but this model is currently used in less than 40 % of all business successions.
Fewer successors in entrepreneurial families
With these numbers opened Holger Habermann and Ingo Claus by K.E.R.N ? Die Nachfolgespezialisten (The Succession Specialists), together with the Fachverband Führungskräfte der Druckindustrie und Informatonsverarbeitung e.V. (FDI). (FDI) on the subject of corporate succession as part of the ?11th DocuServe Application Forum? at Munich University of Applied Sciences.
From their point of view, it is important to plan company succession early and strategically, because a succession project takes an average of two to three years. Particularly in times of demographic change, handing over the entrepreneurial baton to external successors is a crucial issue for the future of the printing industry, which is dominated by family businesses: unregulated company successions endanger many smaller printing companies.
Company succession as a strategic project
In their presentation, the succession advisors went into the individual phases of a successful business succession. Good preparation is very important in this context: In the context of preparing a business valuation or preparing an exposé, not only possible questions of the business successor and his financiers are answered in advance. Ideally, this even uncovers weaknesses: Because eliminating them often leads to a sustainable increase in the value of the company.
Ingo Claus pointed out that the consideration of emotional factors is at least as important as the clarification of legal and tax issues: “At the beginning, there is always the decision to actively deal with the transfer of a life’s work. In our work we very often find that many entrepreneurs struggle with this decision? An unforeseen emergency often makes the risks of an unregulated succession painfully clear. About 70 % of all entrepreneurs have made no provision for an emergency,” Claus continued.
Generational changes are often highly emotional
In the context of a succession process, it is also helpful to consult a consultant specialised in business succession. Consultants often take on the role of mediators,” said Holger Habermann. Due to their experience, they often recognise potential conflicts at an early stage and, through targeted moderation between the transferor and the successor, prevent them from breaking out openly in the first place.
Following the presentation, Rita Hofheinz, host and managing director of DocuServe, reported on a successfully organised family-internal company succession. Six years ago, the entrepreneur and her two daughters first discussed the upcoming generation change. Together they developed a multi-stage strategy for the handover, which led to her daughter Katja Washington joining her mother’s company in 2011. For Hofheinz, open communication is the basis for a successful company handover: “Problematic issues must be addressed openly at an early stage and discussed in a controversial and solution-oriented manner. Then the company succession will be a success?
