Building Resilience In Family Businesses – Family Succession

The challenges of transitioning management and legal ownership in agriculture are considerable. Even the families with strong and positive relationships find the process of intergenerational transition very challenging. At its worst, relationships are severed never to be recovered at its best intergenerational transfer takes great skill, patience and excellent communication. Succession is characterised in agriculture by many issues, and including the following: • High asset values compared to the capacity to generate a profit. In Australia return to capital (profit) is historically in a range of 1-5% • Retirement and late stage life requirements usually have to be drawn from the farming assets, from past saving, borrowing or asset sales • Business viability is a major influence on the options available to multiple generations. The motivation to put sound succession plans in place may well be limited by modest business performance • Catering for multiple offspring is a desire for parents. This includes adult children who develop careers and live away from the activity of farming. • Entitlement syndrome from family members Sound business management and governance facilitates succession. There are few precise recipes for success, but there are many practical options which can assist with a positive outcome.