How to make the handover a success: Around 60 interested people followed a digital talk on business succession.

Joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland invited to livestream from the Sasse distillery

Communication is the be-all and end-all - especially when a new boss is on board in the company who previously acted in a completely different role. It doesn't matter whether someone from the family or from outside takes over: Without communication skills, the handover will not work. Three successors and a communication expert discussed precisely this topic on Tuesday (1 June) at the second edition of the topic talk "A Round of Succession". Around 60 interested people followed the event live via Zoom, the discussion was streamed from the barrel warehouse of the Sasse distillery. The joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland in cooperation with the Münsterland-Siegel had invited the participants.

"On the one hand, we want to generate enthusiasm for the topic of business succession in general, but on the other hand, we also want to give interested parties practical tips and concrete ideas for succession processes," explained Frank Sibbing, project manager of Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland at Münsterland e.V. The first edition of the talk series took place on the topic of culture and digitalisation, this time the Youngstarts project team chose the overarching theme of communication. "When dealing with employees, there are not only many things you can do right, but unfortunately also many things you can do wrong," says Sibbing.

Talk round participant and host Rüdiger Sasse was just 21 years old when he "joined" his parents' distillery. Since 1990 he has left his mark on the over 300-year-old family business, which with its 40 employees is also a member of the Münsterland Seal. "For me, it feels like the generational change in a family business is actually never complete. As soon as the son has emancipated himself from the father, it is already a matter of inspiring the daughter or son for the business. This results in special areas of tension when taking over family businesses, which can also make external support useful," said Rüdiger Sasse.

From the point of view of communications expert Monika Bone, there is no single piece of advice for (potential) successors, because every handover is different. Nevertheless, the right communication is decisive for the success of a business succession. "It is important for a successful succession to consciously deal with the new role: How did the predecessor fill the role with his personality and how do I fill this role with mine? How do we use the differences so that they enrich our work? Talking about differences in an appreciative way creates fertile ground for cooperation," Bone emphasised.

Also part of the discussion group were the successors Ralf Swetlik from Druckhaus Dülmen and Patrick Lehr from the company Motorrad Bögel in Ibbenbüren. They talked about how they communicated the handover process to the employees and about things they had copied from their predecessors or things they had deliberately done differently. Both emphasised how important transparency is to them vis-à-vis their employees and how they always get them on board. The round was moderated by Andrea Hansen. All participants had previously tested negative for the Corona virus or belonged to the group of vaccinated and recovered people.

The next themed talk is already being planned; specific dates will be announced soon on youngstarts-muensterland.com. In addition, the joint project offers further events on the topic of business succession, such as online seminars on 23 June and 30 June. In addition, interested parties can find a podcast with exciting succession stories on youngstarts-muensterland.com.

More about Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland

The event was organised by the joint project Gründergeist #Youngstarts Münsterland, which strengthens the start-up intensity in the Münsterland region and opens up new start-up potential and target groups with target group-specific offers. The project is funded by the European Union and the NRW Ministry of Economics as part of the ERDF call "Regio.NRW".
Der Münsterland e.V. is implementing it as lead partner together with the following partners: Wirtschaftsförderung Kreis Coesfeld GmbH (wfc), Wirtschaftsförderung im Kreis Warendorf (gfw), Technologieförderung Münster GmbH, TAFH Münster GmbH, Wirtschaftsförderungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft Steinfurt mbH (WESt) and Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft für den Kreis Borken mbH (WFG). Further supporters are the North Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Münster Chamber of Crafts.