Passing the spark

When it's time to hand over from one generation to the next, we all know to focus on ownership, governance and financial planning. But there's something else to consider which can have a profound impact on future success.

Every established business has a point of difference. A particular reason for being, way of thinking, serving customers, making decisions or treating people. Often it is so deeply embedded that nobody talks about it. It simply becomes "the way we do things around here".

The challenge is that what is instinctive to one generation is not always obvious to the next.

As leadership changes hands, and as team members move through the generations, there is a valuable opportunity to capture and express what has made the business successful in the first place. Not to preserve it in aspic, but to ensure it is understood and can be built upon.

The next generation should inherit an understanding of what makes the organisation distinctive.

What do customers value most? Which principles have guided difficult decisions? What behaviours have earned trust over decades? What would be lost if the organisation became just another version of its competitors? What do we bring to the world?

These questions sit at the heart of successful succession.

Businesses that navigate transition most effectively are often those that take time to define their purpose, principles and way of doing things.

Succession presents a rare opportunity to capture and communicate that point of difference, embedding it more formally within the business and creating a foundation on which the next generation can build.

The result is a business that can move forward with confidence whilst staying true to what made it special in the first place.