03
What We Do
Generational Succession
Building a business can be hard. Turning it over to a younger generation can be even harder, both emotionally and practically. Failing to transition to a new generation of owners and managers in a timely and well considered manner can destroy decades of effort in just a few years, while on the other hand a carefully planned and well executed transition can result in a business that endures, and even thrives, for generations.
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SEER can help ensure the success of a generational transition. This includes assisting current owners to answer the crucial and sensitive initial question of whether any of the younger family members have the desire and capacity to take on the responsibilities of owning and, potentially, managing the company. If it's concluded that they don't, then it's probably best that the company be sold to an outsider, a process that SEER can lead. See Mergers & Acquisitions here.
If, on the other hand, one or more younger family members are able and willing to take on the burdens of company ownership, it still has to be decided who should manage the firm. It may be wisest, given the interests and skills of those who will own the company, to bring in professional managers whom they will supervise. Or it may be best if one or more of the family owners runs the firm. Again, SEER can help current owners and the family as a whole assess which path is right for them and their company, a task that clearly requires not just technical knowledge and skill, but also an understanding of and sensitivity to family dynamics and individual psychology.
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Then there are the even more fraught decisions as to when the older generation is to step down and to whom in the younger generation the torch is to be passed. Again, SEER has both the technical ability and interpersonal nous to pilot a family through these potentially turbulent waters and to then through its Executive Advisory and Strategic Planning services provide the younger generation of owners and managers the guidance that it needs to chart a new and prosperous commercial and familial voyage.