The goal of succession, as crass as it may sound, is an exercise of accomplishing the goal of making you and your role in the family enterprise obsolete. This does not mean that your company will move beyond you, it simply means that you work to make the business able to function (with people and systems) so that it can run without your continuous and regular input into the running of the company, especially around the detailed day to day decisions. Your time can then better be spent on strategic positioning and direction for your business or other pursuits.
What can this look like?
a) It could be that you take on more of a top level directive / strategic role in the company to lead it to the next level, like the Chair of the Board and you begin to hire the talent (within the family or outside) to begin to take on the execution of the enterprise strategy
b) Alternatively, it could be that you want the business to thrive as it is and ensure that your family and new management can operate the business in an orderly way without you there.
Either outcome, in my view, would be considered to be successful.
In a more positive context, your planned obsolescence could be renamed as reshaping or revisioning yourself.
If you can accomplish this, well done!
Learn, consider, apply!
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