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Succession Ready: Interactive Succession Readiness Toolkit
According to the European Commission, in the European Union (EU) around 150.000 failed business successions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) per year put approximately 600.000 jobs at risk.This corresponds to a failure rate of about 1/3, with a high number of unreported cases. This leads to an enormous loss not only of jobs, but also in terms of innovation and growth potential, and it is affecting structurally weak regions in particular. The reasons for this lie in the complexity of succession processes that affect numerous stakeholders, and require extensive knowledge in different fields.
To increase the likelihood of succession processes, both the key stakeholders of the SMEs and the potential successors must first (1) be enabled to analyse their respective Succession Readiness, (2) identify knowledge gaps and weaknesses, and then (3) must be equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to best prepare and implement the succession process.
Even though the topic has been on the agenda for some time and is addressed in different project approaches, this has not had any significant influence on the high failure rate in the past.
Research on existing support approaches and trainings for the target groups has shown that they are often generic in nature and should be complemented by new innovative offers that take into account situational conditions in particular.
Succession Ready Impacts:
VET sector which directly benefit by delivering the tailored Training Programme (PR2 and PR3) designed to improve their training offers for specific skills needs for succession.
SMEs and SME successors who will benefit from the delivery of the training programme and develop specific skills needed for succession, ensuring a smooth leadership transition, and sefeguarding their employee’s job security.
Governments and relevant EU bodies which will create sustainable improvements in the field of business succession from the knowledge generated.
Project partners which will acquire new strategies, tools and methods and improve the effectiveness and quality of partners’ services.