Succession Planning

Succession PlanningWhat is Succession Planning?

Succession Planning and Exit Planning are different.  While a good Exit Plan does address many succession issues to help stabilize the company and increase value to a potential buyer, a Succession Plan focuses more on internal succession events  and capturing key knowledge within the organization.  While your accountant may address Succession Planning from a financial perspective and your lawyer may address it from a legal perspective, we address it from an operational perspective.  A good Succession Plan will ensure that your business can survive any intentional or unintentional succession event.  Here are a few succession events:

  • Key employee retirement, death, or sudden exit
  • Founder’s retirement or death
  • Handing off business to son/daughter
  • Sale of the business
  • Merger with another organization

Any of these could be devastating to an organization if a leadership pipeline has not been built, key knowledge has not been captured, or processes have not been documented.  Here are some of the items that a thoughtfully conceived Succession Plan will include:

  • Strategic understanding of where the market and organization are going
  • Present and planned organizational chart
  • Roles, responsibilities, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
  • Process mapping
  • Methods to capture key knowledge
  • Risk assessment
  • and more

A good Succession Plan will take several months to develop and will be a living document, much like a Business Plan, but focused on reducing risk through transitions that are guaranteed to occur in every business.  Manley Strategic can help you develop this important document.