ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on strategies to help avoid sort of disaster, based on putting in place systematic and well-structured plans for succession the most serious long-term challenge that family businesses face. It shows how adopting a systems perspective' of family enterprises helps to cope with the idea of lots of things happening at the same time. The family's experiences highlight a number of the challenges that disrupt and sometimes destroy the successful transition from one generation to the next of otherwise sound and prosperous family businesses. Financial security is important for the family business owners' retirement; many owners neglect their personal finances. A programme fostering the personal development of potential successors -acknowledging skills and attributes already possessed and listing competencies that need developing should be part of the succession plan. US family business professor John Ward was the analysts to realise that the ownership structure in a family business is fundamental to understanding the real forces at work within it.