Communicating Succession Plans

Kong Eng Huat talks about the importance of communication about succession and the value of including outside facilitators.

This communication part and you know, especially about what will happen if you know the founder retires, succession, is critical and has to be well communicated. And I think it is also a process, I mean you can’t just hand it over to somebody, and at the end of the day I think it takes years to develop and let that person know that he’s going to take over and groom and prepare the person for it. Even in Asia it is the same, I think it’s very important to have somebody who would basically help to facilitate communication and to point out to the founder or the patriarch in the business about some of this issues that has to be addressed. I think the patriarch should be very clear on the succession plan and also communicate it to the family so that there is preparation and some, and also the person who is going to take over is groomed and prepared to take over.