Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/679551
16 FEDA News & Views fi nd that families that seek ways to keep people informed and educated about the succession process have a better chance of maintaining positive family relation- ships and family support through the process. Those that keep things more closed and mysterious, often risk creat- ing more tension. But, as always, the best approach will be different for each situation. How do you manage expectations from family members? Each family will fi nd its own way as it moves through succession planning. Some families provide many opportuni- ties for family members to be involved in succession planning. They plan open meetings, educational sessions, and other informational opportunities to keep the larger family involved and knowledgeable about the succession process. They may not ask the larger fam- ily to make the actual succession deci- sions, but they provide many opportuni- ties for the larger family to be informed about how things are going. Other families keep the succession process more closed. They are uncom- fortable involving many people, especial- ly those more distant from the business. They want to be sure that the family members most knowledgeable about the business are the ones that make deci- sions about succession, and so they may limit their communication with those not involved directly in the business. We respect the need of each family to do what's right for them. However, we SUCCESSION PLANNING Family Business Consulting Group's Amy Schuman tackles a few of your questions and FEDA members weigh in. Was there a defi ned period of time allotted for your transition into your role as Wasserstrom's president? As far as the transition into my current role, I am not sure it's as simple as "how long did it take," as I've been put in many different roles to prepare since the begin- ning of my career. In terms of the actual transition, we did it over a period of about two years. I took on a few pieces bit by bit until the entire organization was reporting to me. We felt this was the best way for both myself and the rest of our associates to manage the change. As you know, we have a lot of highly-tenured folks and we knew that reporting to someone different for the fi rst time in years, and in many cases in decades, would be diffi cult for some of them. Personally, it took me about a year and half or so before I felt I had grown into the role. Of course, no two companies or people or alike so it's different in every case. For us, the most important part of the transition was maintain- ing the cultural continuity that we have built over so many years. –Brad Wasserstrom, The Wasserstrom Co.