Lego shows how family businesses effectively manage succession

All businesses need to prepare for succession. The continued health and growth of a business can be impacted if staff, customer and supplier needs are not effectively managed following the retirement of key leadership. As illustrated by Lego in this article, leadership teams need to consider succession long before the date of retirement. This allows for identification and development of internal (and if necessary external) talent, planned hand over of key responsibilities and effective communication to the business, the market and clients.

Family owned businesses often have to navigate knottier emotional and generational issues than other businesses. The Kristiansen family have a clear vision for their ongoing family involvement at Lego. Whilst not a topic that families find it easy to talk about, the legal, commercial and emotional issues are best tackled earlier rather than later.