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O P I N I O N
O ver the last two years, Zweig Group has supported more than 20 architecture, engineering, and planning firms in their pursuit of transitioning ownership from the founders to the second tier. We have assisted in moving them both financially and holistically to engage the new generation. The blue pill or the red pill? Successful ownership transition is difficult to achieve, and for it to happen, the first tier has to embrace the transformation brought on by the second tier.
Passionately engaged in the work of the firm, these founders worked their entire professional careers to build their organizations. It is no wonder that most often ownership transition is not just a financial transaction, but a process of letting go. Breaking up is hard, but letting go is harder – and can create potential opportunity beyond anything they could imagine. The fear is often the realization that they are turning over what they created, the very end game of their career, and placing their annuity in the hands of a younger generation that has to make good on its promise to safeguard the legacy. The challenge of the founder is to not just sell stock to another tier of leaders, but most importantly, to let second- and third-tier leaders handle vision, business development, and day- to-day operations. We have helped those in their 70s realize and materialize their idea, and we have assisted those in their 30s with creating their end goal transition so that when they reach their 50s, they have a strategic succession plan.
When we finally get into the details of the leadership transition, we often find that the senior leaders have often not thought about “Who are the whos?” – the most critical and often the least thought about question. “The challenge of the founder is to not just sell stock to another tier of leaders, but most importantly, to let second- and third-tier leaders handle vision, business development, and day-to-day operations.” Recently, we provided strategic planning to a highly dynamic firm that could not make the decision as to “Who are the whos?” from a leadership transition perspective. Turning to wisdom that transcends even our rational
See TED MAZIEJKA, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER May 2, 2016, ISSUE 1150
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