Succession with strategy: How the generational change can really succeed
Succession with strategy: How generational change becomes a management task
In many family businesses, it is inevitable - company succession. But it is rarely just an organizational step. It is a strategic process that goes far beyond the handover of responsibility. In the latest episode of "Hope is not a strategy", Christian Underwood talks about the challenges, opportunities and stumbling blocks on the path to a sustainable succession.
Leadership in transition: when experience meets renewal
Many SMEs have been shaped over decades by strong founder personalities - often autocratic, decisive and intuitive. These entrepreneurs have built organizations around themselves whose structures, values and decision-making processes are deeply rooted in this management culture. When the next generation takes over, a phase of reorientation begins: new ideas meet old habits, modern management styles meet traditional decision-making logic. The challenge: to lead differently without destroying the legacy.
Strategy as a bridge between the generations
Christian Underwood emphasizes that succession is not regulated with a handshake, but through clear strategic processes. After all, succession means distributing responsibility across several shoulders and building trust at the same time. The joint strategy process becomes a tool here: it creates orientation, brings management teams together and opens up space for a substantive exchange before personal sensitivities are discussed.
The first strategy workshop is often also a team-building process - a place where successors and experienced managers see themselves as a joint management team for the first time. Step by step, a new form of cooperation emerges that is no longer based on authority, but on participation, clarity and common goals.
New leadership requires courage and patience
Anyone shaping a succession needs both: patience to allow trust to grow - and courage to make decisions when the path becomes clear. Not every manager will go along with this change. But this is precisely where strategic leadership is effective: it creates structures in which new things can emerge without denying the old.
Conclusion: Succession is not management, but design
Succession does not mean managing a legacy, but shaping the future. It is a balancing act between preservation and renewal, between responsibility and freedom. Those who take strategic work seriously use it not just for planning, but as a process to build trust, shape teams and prepare the company for the next generation.
This episode is a must for successors, entrepreneurial families and management teams who want to make their organization fit for the future - with structure, attitude and a clear strategy.
🎧 Listen now and find out how succession succeeds when strategy becomes a bridge.
SHOWNOTES