Hand-over to son
A successful hand-over requires both parties to agree to the hand-over and to submit themselves to this process. Even if a hand-over does not run successfully, it is beneficial to have the process accompanied from an early stage. This ensures at least one of the both pillars – family or business – to stay intact and free of damage.

The sample of a mid-sized manufacturing company indicates the three typical difficulties during the process of hand-over: (first) the difficulties of the founder to hand-over his business, (second) the difficulties of the successor, to respect the ideas of his father, and (third) the underestimation of the process. In this case the hand-over process was thought of as a short-term action and not as a process, which takes its time. Especially the social and psychological dimension and aspects were undervalued. This was quite clear right from the start of my consulting: “We´ll do three meetings during four months and then the matter is cleared”..

The son, who was chosen to be the successor, often tended to regard the ideas of his father and boss as outdated. Intra-family conflicts, lack of trust and a destructive debate culture also endangered a successful hand-over. The extremely outspoken and longlasting way of disputing were characteristic for the debate culture of the family. This case required the coaching to develop alternatives and to negotiate the different perceptions of key-aspects of senior-management and life-planning. Coaching successfuly managed to develop solutions which resulted in a win-win-situation for all involved.

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