Seizing opportunities: More diversity in corporate succession

By the end of 2025, around 215,000 SMEs will be seeking a succession plan. In one in five cases, the handover threatens to fail because no suitable successor can be found. Yet many families have long had potentially suitable female successors - but they are still too rarely considered.

The new practical guide "Daughters in Succession" by consultant Dr Simon Caspary and Prof Dr Tom Rüsen (WIFU Foundation) shows how female family members can take over the management of a company and what structures are needed to ensure that this succeeds as a matter of course. The guide is aimed at business families, counselling specialists and potential successors.

"Many women in business families are excellently prepared, have the right skills and want to take on responsibility - but traditional role models, a lack of acceptance in the company and the difficulty of combining family and management responsibility make the path more difficult for them," explains Simon Caspary. "It's about breaking down barriers and creating equal opportunities."

The reference guide offers practical recommendations: from clear agreements with the senior generation and targeted management development to the establishment of networks and framework conditions that enable a good work-life balance for everyone involved. Practical examples and reflection questions help business families to realistically assess their individual succession situation and develop suitable solutions.

"Family businesses cannot afford to overlook the skills of their daughters," emphasises co-author Tom Rüsen. "Succession should not be decided based on gender, but on skills, interests and good preparation."

The practical guide "Daughters in Succession" is available free of charge together with other publications from the WIFU Foundation at www.wifu.de/bibliothek. For further information, please contact Dr Ruth Orenstrat(ruth.orenstrat@wifu-stiftung.de, +49 2302 8898303).

About the WIFU Foundation:

Founded in 2009, the non-profit WIFU Foundation's mission is to promote research and teaching in the field of family entrepreneurship as well as the practical transfer of its findings. Its most important sponsors include around 80 family businesses from German-speaking countries. All of the WIFU Foundation's activities centre on acquiring, communicating and disseminating high-quality knowledge about family businesses and business families that is geared towards current issues.

The funding is primarily used to establish and maintain professorships, support research projects and award scholarships to junior researchers. One focus of the WIFU Foundation's research funding is on the Witten Institute for Family Businesses (WIFU) at Witten/Herdecke University with its three research and teaching areas of Management, Law and Psychology/Sociology. WIFU has been making a significant contribution to the trans-generational sustainability of family businesses in research and teaching for over 25 years.

Another focus of the WIFU Foundation's work is the organisation of congresses and other events on topics related to family entrepreneurship. In working groups, training courses and other formats, practice-orientated knowledge and skills are also imparted to promote family succession in the management of family businesses. The WIFU Foundation's events are characterised by a protected environment in which a trusting, open exchange is possible. Comprehensive and active public relations work for research results in the field of family entrepreneurship rounds off the WIFU Foundation's range of tasks.