Journal

Succession insights

Practical perspectives on preparing and executing a business succession worldwide, with Swiss expertise.

  1. The Successor's Impostor Syndrome: What the Person Taking Over Goes Through, Not Only the Seller

    The person who buys an SME often feels illegitimate inside a company someone else built. Field notes on what that doubt does to the handover period.

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  2. The Seller's Non-Compete Clause: What It Really Prohibits, and for How Long

    Activity, territory, duration, who is bound, contractual penalty: how to read a seller non-compete clause line by line, and frame it before you sign.

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  3. An External CEO Before the Sale: What a Bridge CEO Solves and What It Shifts

    Hiring an external CEO before selling reassures the owner. Four common assumptions about the bridge CEO, tested against what a buyer actually looks at.

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  4. The Red Lines to Set Before the First Offer, Not During the Negotiation

    Net floor price, how long you stay, what happens to your people, exclusivity: the short list of what is not negotiable, written before any buyer speaks.

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  5. Adjusting EBITDA: What a Buyer Adds and Subtracts Before Making an Offer

    The EBITDA in your accounts is not the one behind the offer. From T-24 months to closing: what a buyer adds, subtracts, and where it gets negotiated.

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  6. A Buyer Approaches You Out of the Blue: What to Do with the First Ten Days

    A buyer approaches you without being asked. Reply, hold, or decline: the criteria that decide, and what you can say before any NDA is signed.

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  7. The Acquisition Holding: What the Company Your Buyer Sets Up Costs You as the Seller

    Your buyer acquires through a holding company formed for the deal. What that structure costs the seller in fees, weeks, deferred price and tax.

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  8. The Bank Makes Renewing Your Credit Line Conditional on Stabilisation: What It Is Really Asking For

    The bank ties your credit line renewal to clarifying your succession: the risk it is naming, what reassures the committee, and in what order.

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  9. The Family Council: The Body Most Often Missing From Family Successions

    The board governs the company, not the family. What a family council settles between family shareholders, before and after the succession.

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  10. The Owner Becomes Unavailable Overnight: What Has to Exist Beforehand

    Accident, illness, hospital: the list of what must already exist when the only person who signs and decides can no longer be reached.

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