Capturing knowledge and culture across business transitions

By Emma Peterson. 

Why succession planning is about more than retirement — it’s about people, knowledge and culture. 

For many small business owners, the goal is to create a legacy in their business that succeeds long after they retire. But the spot where many of these owners encounter issues is when it comes to planning for their retirement and the company’s future. To learn more about this, we worked with John Kenney of Cotney Consulting Group and hosted an affinity webinar focusing on proper succession planning. 

Maintaining knowledge 

Beyond the legal and operational parts of succession planning, a big hurdle is making sure that knowledge is not lost in a handover. Heidi J. Ellsworth, president/CEO of The Coffee Shops™, explained, “When you have certain, knowledgeable people of a generation who you know are going to retire, you have to do succession planning. Because you don’t want that knowledge to leave the entire company when they retire.”  

John’s solution for avoiding this? Good systems and proper documentation. He explained:  

A lot of people, when they get into succession planning, they think about it as a valuation of their company. That's more of being ready for sale. Succession planning, truly, when you boil it down to what matters to be successful for all that other stuff to happen, is building a strong team through systems and documentation that continues to bring in new talent and grow positively, even if team members retire. 

Retaining culture  

The other aspect of succession planning that is too often forgotten is making sure culture remains strong even in a transition period. Heidi explained the importance of this, sharing, “We don’t hear a lot about it, but culture is often equally important to employee retention and company growth as systems and processes.” John echoed her point, saying, “I see a lot of deals that were put together very well and they're moving forward, but then they fall apart because people forget about culture.”  

So, how do you make sure your company’s culture is strong enough to outlast your career as their leader? The first step is defining your vision. John explained, “If your people that are working for you don't have any idea what your vision is there is a lack of trust and investment from them and the culture suffers.” He went on, “The best thing you can do is allow your team to grow, even if they make mistakes. That will happen when people are learning skills. But, going back to those systems and documents, if you give them operating instructions and knowledge, they will learn and grow. And then in them your culture and business will live on.” 

Check out the entire Affinity Webinar to learn more about succession planning.