Business inheritance
Our company is probably one of the first in Italy to study the problem of a new generation inheriting the business from the old. Some of our resources dealt with this issue in the early 80s. In fact the first articles by Haward Espansione and for Sole 24 Ore date to this period.
In the 90s many temporary management assignments dealt with the problem of the heirs of entrepreneurs, the problem of succession as it was wrongly called at the time. In 1997 we published the book “A Born Entrepreneur, how to save the business from parents and children” for the publisher, Sole 24 Ore. The book clearly set out the know how acquired in Contract Manager s.r.l. as a result of dozens of cases of management of family companies. It enjoyed some success and definitely helped to change ways of approaching the problem. It is not a question of succession but of continuity, the choice of successor amongst the children, working experience outside the family business, studying abroad, gradual assimilation into the company and taking over responsibility from the parents. These concepts have now long been accepted by the Business Community. In fact “A Born Entrepreneur” came out in the second edition in 2003 with the subtitle “How to provide continuity in family businesses”. There was a preface by Alberto Falk. It sold over 11,000 copies and became a classic on the subject of business inheritance.
When should you seek the support of Contract manager s.r.l. to solve a problem? When there is no clear picture of the family set up, when there are family members from different generations in the company, when the future leader has not yet been chosen, when the father of the first or second generation has not yet decided to prepare to hand over to the next, when the business is still doing well and has not yet been sucked up into a spiral of loss and debt, when there is still time to step in to save the inheritance and provide the family company with continuity.
And how do we intervene? By assigning a managing director from Contract Manager s.r.l. to bridge the gap between the two generations and guide the business towards the transition of management, while coaching the son or daughter to take over and by building up management skills within the company.
This support lasts between six and twenty-four months.
