Stories / Manufacturing
Family Business: Clean transition, output up 30%
A founder ready to step back at 71, two siblings disagreeing on direction, and almost nothing written down.
- Client
- Family Business
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Size
- 48 people
- Timeframe
- 8 months
Anonymised at the client's request · figures verified · published with written permission
The situation
The founder had run the business for 34 years and could quote lead times, tolerances and supplier tempers from memory.
Two siblings, one wanting to modernise and one wanting to protect, with every conversation happening at Sunday lunch rather than in a meeting.
A machine failure in month one exposed the risk: nobody else knew the supplier who could turn the part around in 48 hours.
What we did
- STEP 01
Shadowed the founder for six days and wrote it all down
Nineteen core procedures, each on one page, each with the reason behind it. The reasons mattered more than the steps.
- STEP 02
Split the family table from the board table
A monthly board meeting with an agenda, minutes and a non-family chair. Business arguments moved there. Sunday lunch went back to being lunch.
- STEP 03
Gave each sibling a defined remit with real authority
One took operations, one took commercial. Written, published to the whole workforce, so staff stopped shopping decisions between them.
- STEP 04
Handed over in stages with dates attached
Four quarterly milestones, each removing a specific founder responsibility. The last one was the bank relationship, and it was the hardest.
The numbers
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Documented procedures | 3 | 19 |
| Monthly output (units) | 4,100 | 5,350 |
| Founder days/week | 5.5 | 1 |
| Key-person risk items | 11 | 2 |
Measured over 8 months
What didn't go to plan
Two long-serving staff struggled with the new structure and one retired earlier than planned. Succession changes the culture whether or not you intend it to.
In their words
“Twenty years of knowing how everything worked, and none of it was anywhere but in Dad's head. Writing it down was the inheritance.”
Second-generation Managing Director · Manufacturing
The lesson
A legacy that only exists in one person's memory is not a legacy.