The real handover begins after the signature
Anyone who has accompanied a succession in an SME knows this moment: the tax side is in order, the purchase price has been agreed, the contract is signed and the lawyer has sent her invoice. Then comes the day after.
On that day it becomes clear what a handover really involves. An entrepreneur stops being the centre of his business. A successor suddenly makes decisions that nobody signs off any more. A family has to work out how to live together once the company is no longer a shared mission.
I have been accompanying people through this phase for many years. Most succession guides in the Swiss market lead you neatly through the legal, tax and financial stages. How a person lets go of something they have held for forty years usually remains a footnote. Yet this very gap decides whether the whole handover succeeds.
Why the human handover is the real success factor
When a succession stalls, the reason rarely lies in the contract. It usually lies on three levels for which the legal process has no chapter.
- The identity of the outgoing owner. Anyone who has run a company for decades is interwoven with that role. Customers say «we’re going to see Fritz Müller at the workshop» and mean Müller Mechanik AG. If this person no longer holds the role tomorrow, their identity shifts. Whoever does not shape this shift consciously will hold on to the old role without noticing.
- The operational knowledge that is documented nowhere. In SMEs, most of the knowledge sits in the heads of long-standing management: which supplier helps out in an emergency, which customer is less difficult than he seems, which arrangement with the bank has applied for fifteen years. This knowledge leaves when the outgoing owner leaves.
- The family and emotional constellation. In a family handover, roles shift between parents and children, between siblings, between family and business. Even in an external handover, the family is often more involved than the contract suggests. Without an outside perspective, misunderstandings grow beneath the surface and catch up with the process years later.
These three levels decide whether, three years on, a succession is seen as a success or a mistake.
Passing on knowledge and handing over responsibility are two processes
One misunderstanding comes up again and again: many outgoing owners believe that once they have passed on their knowledge, they have also handed over responsibility. The two have little to do with each other.
Passing on knowledge is a craft. It is about who takes over what, in which order and with which tools. A good handover plan gives the successor structured access to the most important customers, suppliers, processes and figures over the last six to eighteen months. She watches first, then works alongside and finally takes the lead. This can be learned.
Handing over responsibility is an attitude. It begins the moment you say clearly: «From this date, she decides. My time as the decision-maker is over.» It becomes visible in the details: in meetings, the team naturally looks to the successor, a customer is put straight through to her, an invoice no longer needs your signature.
I once saw an outgoing owner still in the business every day a year after signing, because he only wanted to «help out a little with one project». Everyone sensed there was more to it, yet nobody said so. His successor held back his first important decisions and the team no longer knew who was really in charge. Six months later, the business was operationally weaker than before the handover.
How a mentoring-based succession works
I work with a model in three phases. It does not replace legal or tax advice. It gives the human process a framework so that this advice can take hold in the first place. The three phases are milestones. How long each one takes and what exactly happens in it is something we clarify together in conversation, because every handover has its own rhythm.
First contact. You get in touch by phone or email. In a first conversation of about an hour, we look at where you stand, what you need and whether we want to work together. This conversation is free of charge and without obligation.
Phase one: clarification. Before the handover, you work with me on your own role. Why do you want to hand over? What does the idea of leaving the company trigger in you? Which images accompany you through the handover?
At the same time, we clarify what «successful» means to you. For some it is the continuity of the business, for others the freedom to go sailing for three months without the phone ringing. Both can be reconciled, but they need a conscious choice of priorities.
Phase two: transition. Around the handover date, you work together with your successor. In this phase I am above all the outside perspective for the two of you as a team. I structure the transfer of knowledge and make the silent negotiations between you visible. This includes naming clearly where responsibility has already changed hands and where it has not. This phase is the most intensive and usually the most valuable.
Phase three: independence. After the handover date, you have left the business or hold a clearly limited role, for example as a board member with a defined mandate. Your successor leads. She now needs me less as a mediator and more as a sparring partner for her own leadership. Strikingly often, the biggest steps in development happen in this phase, because the successor moves without a shadow for the first time.
All in all, we are often talking about two to three years. Anyone who reckons with six months underestimates the human side of succession.
What outgoing owners often underestimate
Four misjudgements come up again and again.
- Their own role after the handover. The operational handover is planned precisely, while their own time afterwards stays vague: «I’ll see then.» For many, the first six months without structure are the hardest phase of the whole process.
- The timing. «Once I have a successor, I’ll talk to my fiduciary.» This order costs years. A conscious handover process ideally begins five to seven years before the planned date, long before the search.
- The role of the family. Even in external handovers, the family is part of the process. Whoever does not bring relatives into a structured exchange early will experience them as friction later on.
- Their own trust in the successor. Right up to the signature, many waver between «she can do it» and «she can’t». This wavering is normal. It only becomes difficult when it remains unspoken.
Why family handovers need an external mentor
Handovers within a family are the most demanding form of succession. Someone who is both father and boss can hardly find a role that does justice to both sides. When siblings are involved to different degrees, issues grow beneath the surface that nobody in the family can address neutrally.
An external, trained mentor brings the outside perspective that a family cannot give itself. He asks the questions that nobody in the family is allowed to ask. Because he is not personally affected, he can name patterns and bring conflicts to the surface that would otherwise stay covered up.
Measured against the cost of a failed succession, a qualified mentoring process is a small investment.
For family members and relatives
If you are reading this because someone in your family is facing a handover, you are often carrying a heavy load as well. You cannot take the handover off their shoulders. You can, however, create an environment that supports them and gives them room.
In my experience, two things help most:
- Ask about their role after the handover. The price gets settled with the fiduciary. The role afterwards becomes either an anchor or a burden.
- Bear with the process. Handovers take years. Impatience in the wrong place costs trust, patience in the right place is remembered.
The Swiss Federal Diploma as a mark of quality
Anyone looking into business mentoring in Switzerland will come across the Federal Diploma in Business Mentoring. The qualification stands for a recognised methodological framework and shows who brings a sound training to the role of mentor.
Living Sense Executive in Zurich offers training towards the Federal Diploma. The course combines the methodological foundations with the practice that Swiss SMEs actually face. If you are an outgoing owner or a successor looking for sparring at eye level during this phase, you will find it in our coaching for leaders.
What you can do now
If a succession is due in the next five years, it is worth making an appointment with yourself first, even before the one with your fiduciary. Three questions will take you further than any market research:
- What do I want for my company?
- What do I want for myself?
- What do I want for the people who make a living from it?
Once you can answer these three questions clearly, you have reached the first milestone. Everything else can be structured.
Frequently asked questions about mentoring and succession planning
When should I start planning my succession?
Ideally five to seven years before the planned handover date. The conscious process begins before the search, with the question of what the company should look like in five years so that it can be handed over at all.
How long does a succession take in an SME?
The contractual process takes a few months. The human process, from clarification through transition to independence, takes two to three years and sometimes begins long before the contract.
Do I need an external mentor if I hand over within the family?
In almost all cases, yes. Handovers within a family are emotionally the most demanding form. An external mentor brings the neutral outside perspective that nobody in the family can take.
What is the difference between coaching and mentoring in succession?
Coaching accompanies one person with their own questions. Mentoring also looks at the outgoing owner and the successor as a team, structures the transfer of knowledge and makes the silent negotiations between the two visible.
How do I recognise a good succession mentor?
A recognised qualification is a pragmatic signal: in Switzerland, the Federal Diploma in Business Mentoring stands for a sound methodological framework. Add to that practical experience with SME successions and the ability to stay neutral within family systems.
