A good insight into succession planning and the fear factor involved - fear of upsetting the family, fear of stepping up, fear or standing down, fear of making the wrong decision and more besides.
Fear can cause a failure to address the challenge and prolong the debate, stagnating a family, relationships and the business and there is a need for open and honest conversations from all parties to address the challenge.
Family-owned businesses in the US generated 62% of the country’s employment and created approximately 78% of new jobs, yet only 30% will remain in the family into the second generation. That’s staggering. CEOs often get stuck and avoid action on succession planning because of the uncomfortable decisions they need to make.Who will take over the leadership? Will he or she continue to run the company well? Fear is the main driver here. Often, we fear what people will think and say. We fear the impact on the business itself. We fear how the culture of the company might be affected. And we fear how people may behave. On the other side, the potential successor fears who he/she needs to become in order to step fully into the new role. But it’s not just fear that causes family business succession failure.
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