Business Succession

fortalent supports owners in finding the right successor entrepreneur. By this we do not mean a salaried managing director, but a person who runs the business operationally and grows into the role of owner. Our approach: discreet, led by senior consultants and never handed over to junior researchers.

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Who is the right successor entrepreneur?

By 2034, a wave of business handovers will sweep across the German-speaking region. Almost half of these already take place outside the family, and the trend is rising. For the individual business, this turns the question of ownership into a question of finding the right person.

Add to this a characteristic of many owner-managed companies. For years, the owner covers tasks that do not appear as such on the organisational chart: key accounts, discussions with the bank, technical decisions, personnel matters. As long as the owner is on site, this works extremely well. When they step back, a gap opens that a purchase agreement alone will not close. Business succession is therefore decided not by the price, but by the person who carries responsibility afterwards.

When we are brought in:

• Succession outside the family: search for a successor entrepreneur who will take over in the medium term
• MBI (management buy-in): takeover preceded by a period as managing director
• MBO (management buy-out): guiding the transition from manager to owner and building the second management tier
• Handover within the family: strengthening the team with experienced executives
• Stepping back from day-to-day operations without a sale: a managing director as intrapreneur
• Handover to an investor or holding company: key appointments before and after closing

Succession support from fortalent

Candidates for a takeover differ markedly from conventional executives. They bring their own capital or the ability to raise financing, are prepared to take on personal liability, and accept that a substantial part of their wealth will in future be tied up in a single company. In return, they expect commitment: a reliable statement of when, and on what terms, they can acquire shares. Owners who withhold this prospect will attract good managers from the market, but not entrepreneurial personalities.

What we assess in the candidate pool:

• Entrepreneurial motivation
• Willingness and plausible capacity to finance
• Fit in terms of industry and company size
• Leadership ability and the skill to integrate into an existing workforce
• Understanding of their role towards the family, shareholders and advisory board during the transition period
• Time horizon and commitment to the location: succession is a life decision

We start where tax advisers, law firms and M&A boutiques stop: with the person. Valuation, contracts and financing structure remain with your existing advisers. We coordinate closely with them, because the ownership model shapes the successor search: without a clear statement on shares, timing and terms, you will not win over a successor entrepreneur.

The topics we work on:

• Role and ownership model
• Requirements profile for the successor entrepreneur
• Key-person analysis and handover plan
• Inclusion of internal and external candidates through structured audits
• Discreet direct approach: MBI candidates, industry managers looking to acquire a business, and entrepreneurs from the wider network
• Selection process with a fit check against the owning family, corporate culture and shareholder logic
• Compensation and equity: a market-aligned package for the managing-director phase, matched to the planned share acquisition
• Handover phase: clear division of responsibilities between outgoing owner and successor
• Internal and external communication

A successor search cannot afford broad exposure in the market. As soon as word gets out that the owning family is looking for a successor, conversations with customers, financing partners and employees change, and the purchase price comes under pressure. We therefore work with do-not-contact lists, defined approval stages and a deliberately small candidate pool. Here, discretion is not an add-on, but part of the mandate.

Not every succession ends in a sale of shares
Some owners want to hand over management while keeping ownership in the family. That, too, is a clean solution. It simply calls for a different candidate profile, a separate compensation logic and a governance structure that gives management genuine room for decision-making.

If a handover is on the horizon in your company, let’s discuss in a confidential initial meeting which succession solution fits, what the candidate market looks like and what timeframe is realistic.

For: Mid-Market Companies · Scale-ups · Family Businesses · Holdings & Private Equity · Institutions