We're told that animals can sense changes in weather patterns and in the earth's sub-surface. We don't know if they can predict shifting patterns in business, but let me help: it's happening.
Over the past two years we've received thousands of resumes from hopeful, unemployed job seekers. While that activity level hasn't changed, what is different is that more of these contacts are coming from employed job sniffers. During the past two years some stayed in positions to insulate themselves from the economic turmoil. Others took jobs that minimally met only immediate pay and benefit needs. They delayed career advancement and pay increases. Now they're beginning to emerge, looking to reclaim challenge, their careers and lost compensation.
___________________
During this time we've also been in continuous conversation with business leaders and owners, consultants, academics and others who recognize that both time and an erratic economy are transforming industries. There are new competitors, products, technologies, customer expectations and business models. The aptitude, skills and knowledge of many current leaders are out-matched by the new challenges, and too many businesses have yet to address their transformation. More owners, boards and CEOs are questioning their organization structure and whether they have the leaders they need. (They believe for the most part they have good people. Their question is, quite appropriately, do they have the right people).
__________________
Like the underemployed executives, many business owners have been waiting for an improved market into which they might sell their businesses. There's always a flow of business sales, but in the past two years that flow was dammed to a trickle as buyers were uncertain, funding was tight, and ready owners waited for better prices. Couple the release of pent up transactions with expiring tax advantages and with the demographic of baby boomer owners desiring to retire, and a surge of business deals may be imminent. (It's estimated that 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day.)
Owners of family businesses who are considering ownership succession are looking at a number of options besides an open market sale. Among their options are: hiring executives who may buy the business; transitioning the business to the family's next generation; or shifting business ownership to employees. These and other options are not new. What is different is the escalating activity.
A quandary faced by most exiting business owners, especially from family businesses, is in part rooted in a concern for their legacy and for their employees. Will a new owner or leader sustain the business and its reputation? How would a business sale, or its failure, adversely impact loyal employees? Are current executives the right new owners? Might well loved family members, in their succession to ownership, inadvertently and incapably squander their inheritance?
__________________
To sustain their competitiveness, companies have to retain or attract the right talent to lead essential changes. And despite an improving environment for the sale of companies, an owner may be handicapped in executing an optimal transaction if the right leadership isn't in place. (Warren Buffett on purchasing companies: "we look for first-class businesses accompanied by first-class management"). To complicate this matter, there is the growing potential that key employees may be less inclined to stay to experience a business sale's uncertain outcomes.
As we claw our way out of a near depression, equilibrium is shifting. We're in the muddled beginnings of emerging new trends for businesses and for executives.
Something's Happening Here. What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear.
* Buffalo Springfield, 1966
Over the past two years we've received thousands of resumes from hopeful, unemployed job seekers. While that activity level hasn't changed, what is different is that more of these contacts are coming from employed job sniffers. During the past two years some stayed in positions to insulate themselves from the economic turmoil. Others took jobs that minimally met only immediate pay and benefit needs. They delayed career advancement and pay increases. Now they're beginning to emerge, looking to reclaim challenge, their careers and lost compensation.
___________________
During this time we've also been in continuous conversation with business leaders and owners, consultants, academics and others who recognize that both time and an erratic economy are transforming industries. There are new competitors, products, technologies, customer expectations and business models. The aptitude, skills and knowledge of many current leaders are out-matched by the new challenges, and too many businesses have yet to address their transformation. More owners, boards and CEOs are questioning their organization structure and whether they have the leaders they need. (They believe for the most part they have good people. Their question is, quite appropriately, do they have the right people).
__________________
Like the underemployed executives, many business owners have been waiting for an improved market into which they might sell their businesses. There's always a flow of business sales, but in the past two years that flow was dammed to a trickle as buyers were uncertain, funding was tight, and ready owners waited for better prices. Couple the release of pent up transactions with expiring tax advantages and with the demographic of baby boomer owners desiring to retire, and a surge of business deals may be imminent. (It's estimated that 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day.)
Owners of family businesses who are considering ownership succession are looking at a number of options besides an open market sale. Among their options are: hiring executives who may buy the business; transitioning the business to the family's next generation; or shifting business ownership to employees. These and other options are not new. What is different is the escalating activity.
A quandary faced by most exiting business owners, especially from family businesses, is in part rooted in a concern for their legacy and for their employees. Will a new owner or leader sustain the business and its reputation? How would a business sale, or its failure, adversely impact loyal employees? Are current executives the right new owners? Might well loved family members, in their succession to ownership, inadvertently and incapably squander their inheritance?
__________________
To sustain their competitiveness, companies have to retain or attract the right talent to lead essential changes. And despite an improving environment for the sale of companies, an owner may be handicapped in executing an optimal transaction if the right leadership isn't in place. (Warren Buffett on purchasing companies: "we look for first-class businesses accompanied by first-class management"). To complicate this matter, there is the growing potential that key employees may be less inclined to stay to experience a business sale's uncertain outcomes.
As we claw our way out of a near depression, equilibrium is shifting. We're in the muddled beginnings of emerging new trends for businesses and for executives.
Something's Happening Here. What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear.
* Buffalo Springfield, 1966
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