ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how to handle challenging situations when working with subject matter experts including more advice on working with The Reluctant subject matter experts. Small, family-owned and other privately, closely held companies are some of the most vulnerable to extinction when they lose their expertise. When the founder chooses to retire, pass the business to heirs, or unexpectedly becomes ill or passes away, a business that relies on that single person's knowledge and business connections can quickly deteriorate. The founder hired an executive search firm who engaged a recently retired military officer with the human resource and administrative background to safely steer the company into the future, while the son happily remained head of engineering and took his place on the board of directors. Some small, privately-held companies have less happy endings with one, two, or more generations of the founder's hard work eventually destroyed by uninvolved, incompetent, or greedy heirs.
