NEW TIRE MAGAZINE:
Companies develop and grow over time. When or from when would you advise owners and owner families to put the management of the company in stranger hands?
Birgit Felden:
In the first development phase of a family business, the sole owner controls the entire organization, makes all the decisions and the company is wholly or largely owned by him. He or she is basically the company. It is not difficult to see the image of the classic patriarch, as represented, for example, by Wolfgang Grupp von Trigema.
When family businesses grow or the next generation takes over the helm, other family members (e.g. children) often become involved in the company and often take on management tasks. Fast-growing companies, whose need for highly qualified executives can no longer be met within the family, often think of external management even in this generation. This solution is also often chosen if family-internal skills are not available for reasons of age.
The solution of leadership by external managers can also be accompanied by a time-limited perspective and enable a long-term succession strategy. This variant consists of interim management by a non-family manager until one’s own children are ready to take over the management. A manager is often recruited from the company for this task, which is usually manageable in terms of time, and a manager is rarely sought specifically on the market.
The question of external management arises at the latest in the third generation, as soon as the first dynastic structures appear within the family and the family is made up of people from different family lines.
Handing over corporate management to external managers does not necessarily mean that the family withdraws from responsibility or the first step towards the end of the family business. On the contrary, these companies are usually characterized by very professional management and disproportionate success.
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