The Successor Academy is a six-month programme specifically designed and intended for Successors to families-in-business.

The program aim is for them to discover, decide and contribute towards continuity of their family enterprise and for them to achieve demonstrated personal and career success, within the context of ownership.

The Academy is for those Successors to families-in-business:

• Considering a career in the family business;
• Already working in the family business and considering a long-term commitment.
• Taking on a role with significant responsibility in their family business.

The program is designed for individuals of between 25 and 40 years of age.

In short, yes. The course is designed to cover those areas of particular relevance and importance to Successors - the business, family, roles and aspirations, the challenges of ownership et al - regardless of the complexity and size of either the family or the business.

The aim the course is to enable you to identify the opportunities open to you as a family member and Successor and to help you realise these in line with your aspirations. This is as important in a business small in scale as one that is comparatively larger.

The questions in most cases, are the same.

Fulfilment of the course is designed to be achievable alongside a full-time job.

The course will run for a duration of 26 weeks (6 months). We will have a call of 1.5 hours, every two weeks. You will need to allow another 2 hours per week to work through the exercises in the workbook and to undertake any necessary conversations, investigation etc.

We will have four online group sessions over the course of the 6-month programme. One at both the start and completion of the course and two others over the six months. 

The coach and all individual participants will sign a contract, within which there is an understanding and undertaking to respect confidentiality of all information shared as part of individual coaching sessions.

From the outset, we will commit as a group to the confidentiality of all information and its retention within the Academy group, both during and following completion of the course.

Finally, participants can decide to keep private (not to share same with the group), certain information he/she has discussed privately with the coach

Focus and attention is on you as the participant. The primary relationship is between you and the coach and with the other participants on the course. As such general issues (such as participation, attendance) or specific areas will not be discussed with your family.

Parts of the syllabus require you to discuss key issues with your family and/or other managers in the business, as you shape your ideas.

If requested by you and agreed with your family, the coach will attend an ‘exit’ meeting on your completion of the course, with you and other members of your family.

On ‘full completion’, you will receive a Certificate of Completion from the Successor Academy, to indicate the amount of completed coaching and those items below.

In this case, ‘full completion’ is understood to mean:

1. Full participation in all individual and group coaching;
2. Attendance at the four ‘in-person’ sessions;
3. Submission of your completed ‘Balance Scorecard for Ownership’,
4. Completion of your Successor Development plan, and
5. Agreement (or anticipated agreement) with relevant family/non-family managers.

Following completion of the six-month course you can expect to ‘graduate’ with the following:

Family Business Continuity: an awareness of your unique context as Successors and the fundamentals of family business continuity;

180 Day Succession Blueprint Builder: completion of a stepwise process and a recording of those issues, challenges and options pertinent to you;

Individual Mentoring: a period working with an experienced mentor, dedicated to optimising your potential over time, with an option to continue;

A Development Plan: a plan developed by you in consultation with the senior generation of your family and/or non-family managers;

A Cohort of Peers: the option to continue to meet with the group as a source of ongoing support, expertise and inspiration.