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As CEO of General Electric for over 20 years, Jack Welch established himself as one of the most admired business leaders in the world. At a critical stage of his career at GE, and in his best attempt to stay out of the GE corporate bureaucracy, Jack managed a $2 billion collection of GE businesses – in a sweater and blue jeans – out of a Hilton hotel in Pittsfield, MA.  At the same time, he forged a unique philosophy and operating system that relied on “boundaryless” sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal,  give and take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy.  NextStep believes “jack” is full of practical and ingenious insights that help transform our private business clients thoughts and actions, the most importantly… the results they achieve.

Workable Succession Plan

A sustainable business is one that can transition ownership and management and still continue to operate successfully into the future.  Succession is the final step in building a sustainable company.

To us, succession is a process.  It begins well in advance of the actual event so by the time the transition occurs, all the pieces are in place and the event itself goes smoothly with things working like they’re supposed to.

For some business owners the optimum approach to succession is through a sale to a third party.  For the vast majority, the plan will involve family members and/or key people.

Regardless of approach, succession needs to address four main issues.

  • Building the future leadership team that will manage the company

  • Meeting the retirement expectations of the exiting shareholder

  • Ensuring the company has the resources to fund a stock purchase  while pursuing business growth

  • A formal process that has built in triggers

We have spent many years working with business owners on their succession plans.  The tools we’ve created along the way have helped many businesses transition successfully.  They identify any gaps that need to be bridged and set the strategy for closing them.  Our NextStep process is designed to monitor the situation until the transition takes place.