Guide
Readiness Signals Before a Handover
A successor who knows the products is not automatically ready to hold the client book, the bank relationship, and the staff. Look for a short list of concrete signals.
Handover timing is often set by the founder’s age or a planned retirement date. Readiness should be checked against what the successor can already carry without the founder in the room.
Useful signals include: the successor has led a full quarterly cycle of pricing and supplier negotiations; key accounts recognise them as a decision-maker; the bank relationship manager has met them without the founder present; and they have handled at least one difficult staff issue to resolution.
Missing signals are not always a reason to delay forever. They are a reason to design a staged authority transfer. For example, the successor may take operational control while the founder retains a defined veto on capital above a set threshold for twelve months.
We ask owners to score readiness in writing, not in conversation alone. Written scores reveal where optimism outruns evidence — and where a modest coaching period would close a real gap before ownership papers are signed.