BUSINESS SUCCESSION: BEWARE OF DEVIL'S ADVOCATES

Written by Oladotun Oladele (Pictures are for illustration purposes)

STEVE JOBS

Dr. BILL GATES 

HENRY FORD

The greatest joy of any entrepreneur is to start a business and for the business to prosper. Enterpreneurship is a very good thing and it is a known fact that it is entrepreneurs who actually shaped the world. For all we are enjoying today are all handwork and hardworks of mena  and women who dared to be different pursuing their dreams and visions with all vigour, tenacity even in the face of all odds stacked against them. These people have survived and succeeded inspite of all odds and their stories are the elixir and catalysts which have continued to fuel all men and women who dared to dream with their eyes open.

Today, we have many of these companies and businesses scattered all over the countries of the world and it is highly unfortunate that I am going to have to use this video as a reference but I want everyone to learn the lessons in the video and juxtapose it with all my submission in this article. One fact remains that not all entrepreneurs are happy and not all entrepreneurs have truly eaten the fruits of their labours.

At the beginning of every entrepreneurial journey, it is always the thought of the product and services that first ignite the fire in the souls of many entrepreneurs the world have known. History has it that Henry Ford once thought of a time when everyone will be able to afford a car and drive them around. Despite the fact that he had obstacles to making that dream a reality, we are all living witnesses of the dreams and visions of this man called Henry Ford. I have not read in any of the write-ups about him or his biography where he states that he started his business with the soul purpose of succession by his children or family. 

Henry Ford would have been termed a maniac if he had been born in this time that we live in because of the distraction of the social media which is the order of the day. He went to work by day and laboured for twelve years in the garage where he was building his first car. At the time he asked the great Edison if fuel will power cars in the future, many co-workers would have termed him to be too preposterous for asking the great inventor since they do not know the dream he carried within his heart.

Today, the company is headed by grandsons but one fact remains that have the company really grown in the ways and capacity of the man who started the company? One main thing exist and that is, many companies problems are the people at the helms of it's affairs, including the owners because they have become impediments over time since many have lost the enthusiasm and zeal for the businesses hence they are just on the verge of maintenance of business cultures and not business growth oriented.

Ray Kroc of McDonald's his son's are not the ones heading the company. Steve Jobs on his return before his passing did not leave or pass the company to their children. Dr. Bill Gates children are not going to inherit Microsoft though with the divorce that had taken place, there could be a possibility but it all depends. The strategies of growing a business remains with the entrepreneurs. Like Amazon of Jeff Bezos, despite the divorce, there are possibilities that there could be buy backs but one thing is sure, it is very likely the children of Jeff Bezos will not be inheriting the businesses.

Be it as it may, we must stare the truth in tbe face. It is time the entrepreneurs ask themselves if their highly cherished children want to be like them? Not all entrepreneurs have high performance children. The family of the Kennedy's are known for demanding high performances from their children and this drive have had it's effects according to some researchers. Except for athletes who in the days when they are actively in sports competition are engaged in disciplines of themselves just to be able to win laurels. Many of the athletic figures who had been great inspiration way back then have lost those lovely figures and shapes since they had lost reasons to maintain such statures.

The youths focus these days are not same with their parents who are in businesses. Not all children want to be like their entrepreneurs parents. Many parents need to ask themselves,"if their wards ever want to be like them? Many a times the answers are in the negatives, these are red flags and indications why many are following the footsteps of babyboomers who are selling their businesses. Many actually are supposed to be selling their businesses but they are all still constituting problems for the sale of the businesses.

There are many entrepreneurs who have been working all their lives and many cannot really say they know their children very well because have left their wards to nannies and others to raise and influence such children. Education is good but many times, lots of children would study courses that have very slim prospects while basking in the euphoria of been the children of CEO's which will make them rather not serious with their studies because they carry the mentality of inheriting the businesses of their parents.

The statistics of children who have purchased businesses of their parents are almost none existence because many parents are not mentors to their children. Many children see their parents more like tormentors than mentors. Far too many children who are engaging in many heinous crimes and many who are indulging in drugs and ones who attempt suicides are all with poor or low self esteem because the examples that surround them are not desired by them. There is a very popular actor in China whose son had possibly stared with him in some films who was caught with drugs which became a thing of shame to the father.

There are many devil's advocates everywhere who are often trying to advice the entrepreneur on what to do with their businesses. There are very few companies that the children of the owners succeed their parents especially as entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs like babyboomers should know when to sell a business though many never thought of it as at the time they are starting out but the time is right here for them to make such moves and be speedy about it because you never can tell how long the entrepreneur will live after sale. If an entrepreneur dies before the time of selling a business most definitely the businesses do end up dying unless efforts are made to sell the company to someone who will carry on the legacy of the business so an entrepreneur can have piece of mind.

From the video that we are watching here, we can see a father who was an entrepreneur who never thought of selling his business but looking to handing over the business to the family possibly the same son who actually is causing him heart aches. With a poor health condition he was in no place to wrest the company from the son who had taken over the business because of the stroke he had which was incapacitating him. Lucky enough he was alive to seek justice. The son who does not have any experience in running a business like the masters degree owners whose stock in trades of businesses is to take over a business, many do not understand external growth.

Lots of MBA graduates cannot manage businesses because they do not understand the visions that gave birth to the businesses. They are mostly hired hands to help a business survive not grow a business. They only know how to hire people who are not more knowledgeable than them and expect peak performances from demotivated staffs. Maintenance culture without growth. Many do not understand raising capitals let alone hunting for deals. Their desires is the beauty of the office and the perks of the big cars that are attached saying that is how the business will grow. They are more interested in the spending or mismanaging the resources of the business they are asked to manage 

Very few companies that exist today are started by MBA graduates. By the time many will graduate and have their MBA they would have forgotten their business dreams and visions. If Dr. Bill Gates waited to have his MBA would we have Microsoft or will it have grown to the size it is today, a company he started in 1974 while Steve Jobs started his in 1973. It's however sad that many graduates are busy looking for high paying jobs and the companies they can take over and run the affairs without ever thinking of starting theirs and devoting 30-35yrs of their lives to build such businesses or brands.

All who ask that you allow your children to continue your business legacies are devil's advocates. Look around and ask yourself, what businesses have they started that they are advising you on the succession of your own? Many unqualified advisers will be coming to you possibly because someone is trying to get you to handover that business to a child whom most often will mismanage the company. Where have the young man and woman worked and what success have they recorded that makes them candidates for the manager or CEO of your business or multinational?

In whatever business you do, it is very important not to stay in office till your health fail or you die in office. It is also important that an entrepreneur should not discuss his business plans with his family, if you do be t have a business attorney or an audit firm or CPA you are talking to the wrong person and you are thereby endangering the future of the business. Be on your guard for friends, families and supposedly well-wishers who want to become your business advisers, many who have never taking a loan to do business. 

You are who you surround yourself with. Who is advising you on your business deals. You can't be driving a Rolls Royce and think a man who can't afford a motor bike will give you the best advice on how to run a business or invest money. When you have no money or business people will not advise you on how you can be wealthy but the moment they perceived that a large sum of money is coming your way they begin to move closer to be an advisor and intimate friend, beware of devil's advocates. In this video which is a true life, we can see the influence of friends and family now there is regret.

Kindly sell your business and enjoy your money while you still can. Let no one allow you go to the grave unhappy because many would work from their youth into the grave when they ought to have sold their businesses to safe pair of hands like me who are Owner Investors who will continue their legacies without tampering with the culture of the business but would rather grow it while maintaining the legacy and the brand of the business. For every mismanaged business(es) families suffer as breadwinners are mostly thrown into job markets by no fault of their own because a business owner had made a wrong choice of succession occasioned by a devil's advocate.

Don't blame the young man, blame the father for not selling the company and allowing the son to go start a business of his own or go and buy a business of his own by possibly showing him how to raise capital. It is very easy to have people who want to manage the capital you have raised than people who want to raise capital for you to manage. For entrepreneurs you have lessons to learn including insurance lessons but endeavor to do your due diligence on all insurance companies to ensure that if your business is insured in the case of an unfortunate fire incidence you are well covered. Ask for references that are verifiable this will save you from buying policies that would cripple you in the event of disaster beyond your reach.

This young man is an example of the youths of today, they all want the fame and fortune, the hard work, the problems, the strategies are not important to them. It is very easy to spend money either your own or that of another but it is not easy to build a fortune and to maintain it. Ordinarily, he ought to have generated more money and not squander the one that is in the company. This will definitely not allow the family to be same after the court ruling but it is the truth and it is always ad bitter pill. For all that you do, be on the lookout for the devil's advocates.