Business Succession Planning For Dummies Paperback – April 10, 2012

This is the 5th of five books I bought on succession planning and I wished it had been the first so I wouldn't have wasted money on the first four. If you really want the details of how to do it, what pitfalls to avoid and the step-by-step planning/scheduling you'll need, this is the book for you. No tedious "business cases" or long lecture-like chapters that are obviously for a biz-school. This book gets right to the facts. Very highly recommended.

Was helpful as my first consulting proposal required a section on succession. Great help

OK in providing general material on the subject but does not have much on ownership transition including arranging financing including bank guarantees and how that should be divided among owners who work in the business and those who do not, and how to pay outgoing owners over time, etc., which are the real tough issues to work out, and how to pick the best options for your situation from all transition options available. This might be helpful for someone with a really small company (like four people) with a really simple ownership transition. For the family businesses that belong to the association that I belong to, this would not be too helpful to most of them in my view.

I found the information contained in the book to be useful and easy to put into action.

Very simplified, engaging to read and topics need not to be successively be read. You can read or jump to any topics

Business Succession Planning for Dummies is a book of straightforward suggestions on how to put a succession plan into place for your business.I'd have to think that a big business wouldn't resort to the "For Dummies" series but this is a good reference for anyone who wants to get an idea of what may go into a succession plan.It isn't a book to read fast. The layout is like a collection of bullet points and checklists so it packs a lot of information in short bursts. But it does have a lot of good information as a reference should.

It was OK.

What is business succession planning? Putting it simply, business succession planning is about taking control of your final exit from your business or profession and thinking about your successor. It's a process, and not a one-time occurrence, and it involves studying all of your options in order to protect your investment in your business and safeguard its future stability. It's a necessary process to satisfy your stakeholders (your partners, employees and in many cases your family members), to select a successor, and to set a timetable for the handover of ownership.The steps to accomplish this are clearly outlined in Business Succession Planning For Dummies, but don't let the title fool you, as this book is as about as solid a primer on the topic of business succession planning that you can find. The author, Dr. Arnie Dahlke, who has the academic, business and experience credentials to back it up, has written a book that will guide you through the steps in a clear and concise fashion. Within the introduction he states that each chapter stands on its own, and that the reader can pick the section that best suits individual needs. I did just that, then came back and read it cover to cover later.Within the book's introduction, we are introduced to the conventions used, an explanation on how the book is organized, complete with an outline of each part. There's an explanation of the frequent icons used, with points to remember, important tips and warnings of potential pitfalls. The intro ends with a small "Where to Go from Here" section, which is well worth reading for those who may or may not have a succession plan in place, which is a nice touch.The book is organized as follows:Part I: What Is a Succession Plan, and Why Do You Need One?Part II: Creating a Plan and Putting It into ActionPart III: Diving Deeper into Succession PlanningPart IV: Keeping the Succession Ball RollingPart V: The Part of TensEach of these parts begins with a disarming but pertinent cartoon by Rich Tennant, which add to the relaxed atmosphere of the book itself. Early into the first chapter, the author asks a key question, where we are asked to consider what might happen without a succession plan. He answers that in a very concise way:"Not having a succession plan puts the future of your organization at risk. In this highly competitive, fast-paced world, you need every resource you can get. In every position -- from your CEO to your IT technician -- you need the talent required to keep up with the times."He then goes on to amplify that paragraph, and does it without lengthy wording and lectures, but by using check-mark bullet points, and each of them seems to strike home in a solidly succinct way. He explains how succession plans can and will vary in different types of organizations, and even though most successful succession plans share a number of key features, different kinds of establishments have different needs. He covers the more common types of organizations, their particular types of needs, then solid suggestions of how good sabotage succession plans can be implemented and maintained in changing business environments. And it doesn't matter if an organization is a mom and pop store, a small family business, an IT group, a nonprofit corporation, an institution of higher learning, a major corporation, or a government organization, a good succession plan can and should be developed.One of the most interesting sections of Dr. Dahlke's book is Part V: The Part of Tens, and there's a lot of good information in this portion. Within this section, the author details the ten mistakes that can disrupt succession plans, then the ten ways that a succession plan can be kept alive. This is followed with an excellent index, and it seems to cover every topic that this reader checked.There are some who feel that a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is the most essential backup a business can have, then followed by a good business continuity plan (BCP). As one who has been involved in implementing and maintaining both of these, I can agree in part, but if there is no business succession plan in place, then a DRP and a BCP can fail. And for those in the IT sector wishing to look further into DRP from a basic level, I can recommend IT Disaster Recovery Planning For Dummies as a good primer. Keep in mind that DRP and BCP are linked together with succession planning.There is information within the pages of this book on how to hold onto and train personnel within an organization, so insuring at a smooth transition can be made when a senior manager or other key employees retire or leave the organization. There are excellent tips on this and more, all aimed at making this process flow with a seamless transition.I opened this with a quote from a motivated man who was in his lifetime a master innovator, politician, and businessman. He understood succession planning quite well."By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."~ Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)Good succession planning is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill those key leadership positions in the company. It increases the availability of knowledgeable and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available, and the author does an excellent job of explaining this. If you're a small business owner, a manager, an IT department head or human resources professional who is considering the development a solidly working business succession plan, this hands-on, easygoing book will help get you there.6/30/2012