Business Tools Downloadable checklists, model business plans, forms and other documents. Our small business online advice columnist. When a small business is a key component of family wealth, the owner usually has a strong desire to perpetuate it in one form or another. But perpetuating the business through an orderly succession to family members or other insiders is the ultimate management challenge. Any transition must preserve the continuity of leadership and it is most important that the succession of ownership and management be perceived as a process rather than an event.
Succession is a process requiring planning, teamwork, and constant re-evaluation.
Planning for succession in a family business is a special situation of the first order. So infrequently is it done successfully that barely 30 percent of family businesses survive into the second generation and fewer than 15 percent of them endure into the third. This is a sad fact not only for the families but for the nation's economic health, since much of our economy is made up of small, family-owned businesses. The former is an art, the latter a science. All Rights Reserved.