Cash constrains all businesses, especially in high growth. That makes succession harder again – the business needs every dollar working, right when the founding generation wants certainty about stepping back.
In this instance, the parents wanted to be looked after properly, and the next generation wanted their leadership recognised in the ownership. Everyone agreed in passing, though it had sat unresolved for years.
Strategy
A restructure is the end of a process, not the start of one. Before any number can be fair, a family has to agree what the business must become, what the parents need to step back with confidence, and what the years already given are worth.
So the work started with vision, on both sides. With the next generation: a ten year, three year and now session on a wall – what they wanted from the business and from their lives, and what the business had to become to pay for it. With the parents: what a successful future looked like from where they sat.
Action
I met with the parents and went through what they held and how it was held, and what stepping back would need to look like – a lump sum, reliable income over time, or a mix. Preferences first.
I wrote the next generation’s proposal as a working document for the family to talk through. It rested on recognition of the work already done, certainty and security for the parents, and a share of future upside for the founders.
Then I recommended the family work with a specialist in family dynamics before anyone signed – individual sessions, group sessions, parents and successors together – so the gap between feeling seen and being heard could close first.
Outcome
The commercial architecture now exists. The parents are clear on what stepping back requires. The next generation holds a written proposal the family can work from, with a valuation approach already agreed.
If your family’s succession is unresolved – I can help you put the people first and underpin it with a sound commercial reality.
