Seeking Succession

Century Automotive Group is thriving across three generations. Love and commitment to nurturing family relationships have been vital ingredients for their success. From Tracy’s integration into the business as the second generation, and now the third generation actively working in the business; they live by there is no business gain worth a family loss.

The history of Century Automotive Group is unique and, at the same time, similar to so many entrepreneurial-owned businesses. Passion for an industry, and as Tracy would often hear her father say, a little bit of luck, a lot of talent, and the right place at the right time, a successful business is born. A love for the car business inspired Tracy to dream about becoming a Dealer at a very young age.

It was a different time and place for women back then, so instead of going directly into the car business after college, Tracy got her CPA and worked for Price Waterhouse Cooper in Houston. Then, about five years later, Tracy’s father asked if she was interested in moving back to Huntsville, AL because the business needed a controller, and he was thinking about retiring. Tracy was ecstatic about the opportunity and felt confident in her experience as it gave her credibility and, with her finance background, had a much-needed skill to provide.

Listen in to hear Tracy Jones share the history of Century Automotive Group, what inspired her to join the family business, and how succession planning has supported their vision for building strong family relationships and a business growing in value and community impact.

For more insight from Tracy Jones, President of Century Automotive Group, check out the episodes:

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

Kendall Rawls is filling in for Dr. Merlot to answer questions he has received from family business owners across the country.

Before we get started, you may be wondering who is this Dr. Merlot Dude? The Doc is the straight-talking alter ego of Loyd Rawls, who is the founder of The Rawls Group. An alter ego may seem a little silly, but it does provide levity to a topic many people view as heavy.  What is funny though, is succession planning is actually a topic owners need to embrace because it creates strategies for them to create the future they envision. One of our mottoes at The Rawls Group is to do good and have, which is just what “Dr. Merlot” provides Click to learn more about Dr. Merlot and Alter Egos.

Now, let’s dig into the question of When is it time for me to give up control of the business?

The time to give up control is when you have confidence in your qualified successors to be good stewards of control. Confidence and stewardship are everything. High performance does not guarantee high potential, and being a leader is much more than being in charge. Leaders evolve from capacity, confidence, commitment, and experience. Leaders are humble and focused on goals that impact the welfare of the business, those they are leading, and the extended group that depends upon the continued success of the business. Leaders are always pursuing improvement.

The ability to drive performance, growth, and achieving business goals is essential to a good leader and as a qualified successor.  And, driving performance, growth, and business goals are directly tied to recruiting, retention, and motivation of people.   No matter what your business is, it depends upon people to deliver products and services.

In our ever-changing world, a leader’s ability to communicate effectively with a diversity of people is essential.   Research has shown, people stay, or people leave because of the culture.  Culture is made up of many things, some key ingredients to the sauce are respect, the opportunity for growth, and shared feedback.

Leadership sets the tone for the culture. So, whoever you have chosen to fill your shoes, ask yourself, how do they make people feel and how are they influencing culture?

 If you are unsure of how to answer the question, ask key leaders in your team whom you trust and consider engaging in engagement surveys or a 360 review.  According to McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index, there are 4 key qualities people look for in their leaders and ultimately organizational cultures:

They may not have all the tools right now and the likelihood of anyone having it all is slim to none.  However, what you are looking for is someone who can build a team, spot potential, wants to develop others, and exudes trust in those around them.

In addition to the 4 criteria above, below are a few questions to consider as you are evaluating your developing successor capacity and commitment to developing as a leader.

There is no reasonable public successor leadership certification program because each leadership opportunity has unique leadership demands.  You must be the one who certifies your successor. If you are not confident in the leadership potential of your successor, you should not transfer control.

The identified or developing successor may have all your same strengths or maybe completely different.  In family business environments, we often see next-generation leadership to have different strengths than those of the existing owner.  What matters most in leadership transition is finding the balance.

If they have the capacity and commitment to developing as a leader, from the questions listed above, supporting a different strength in your successor is all about teamwork.   You can either recruit talent from the outside or develop from within.

If you have been committed to investing in your people and have a strong talent magnet culture, you are already on your way to building a team to support the differences in leadership between you and your developing successor. If your developing successor exemplifies different strengths and approaches to getting things done then you, TRANSITION, is the name of the game.  Otherwise, it can feel like a culture shock to your organization.

It is essential, you allow your developing successor to take on more responsibility, while you are there to support coaching and development.  Allow your successor to lean into their strengths while you are there to provide historical context in how and why things have been done a certain way.  With an agreed-upon strategy, a transition provides team members to adjust.

In order to slowly introduce your successor to the way things operate, you can incrementally transfer control of some responsibilities while you minimally retain strategic control.  Your attorney can show you a variety of creative mechanisms allowing you to test your successor and ideally confirm your confidence.  Your enthusiasm for this process is dictated by personal and business issues, such as your health, your desire to retire, franchiser issues, credit continuity issues, etc. Needless to say, at some point in time, you must either achieve confidence or take a chance and pray for the best.

Fundamentally, succession planning is all about creating options so you can achieve what you want.  Engaging in the process will create choice, that if one strategy doesn’t seem to be working, you already have another one in the works.  It creates an “A”, “B”, “C” etc Plans.   And, there is always a solution to achieve a Win-Win-Win.  It may just require looking at the situation, a person, a strategy in a different way.

Third-party perspective and leaning on a team of advisors provide you with ideas and creative problem solving so all who are involved feel as though they have won.

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

When it comes to the season of family, otherwise known as “The Holidays” it is common to experience fear and anxiety. We all want it to be like the best holiday movies, but the reality isn’t a hallmark movie. There is a secret to creating a happy holiday, or season of family. The secret is understanding, embracing, and practicing that the only thing you can control is YOU.

Do not get swept up and away in all the other fluff of the season. Watch and learn 4 strategies you can implement immediately to take control of how much you enjoy and celebrate the weeks to come.  As a teaser, the 4 strategies are:

Listen in to learn the power of the breath and an exercise you can practice to help call on the pause before flight, fight or fawn happens.

Link to Resource: Lead at Your Best

The Holidays are positioned in the world as a time for cheer, celebration, and magic.  However, many people feel anxiety, fear, and pain due to their past and current circumstances.  You can find the MAGIC; it is actually very close by because it is found in YOU; knowing what you can and can’t control and choose how you want to show up.  

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

A hornets’ nest or even a beehive from afar appears to buzz with activity. It’s interesting to watch nature in action, which ironically is very similar to families and working in a family business.  Each individual plays roles and a set of standard operating procedures that allow the hive to run smoothly and efficiently.  When done in unison and as expected, the hive buzzes with focus and activity, not bothering anyone outside the pack.

These same behaviors exist in the family business. Whether you are family in the business or you work in a family business, there is a hierarchy that sets the tone and goals for the company, and then the worker bees that help achieve them.  However, like in the beehive, things can get messy if one strays or does not work or live up to expectations.

When working in a family business, specific topics can be taboo to discuss, so they are shut behind the big red door – DON’T TOUCH! But, unfortunately, the big red door creates a dysfunctional functional norm for everyone who works in the company.  And, if you are family in the business, avoided hot topics have the power to impact relationships, the ability to get things done, and can exacerbate drama at business meetings and family holidays. 

In this episode, Kendall Rawls share insight and strategies to

Without leveraging the tools available, the hive will be blown to its side, creating hysteria and infighting.  However, active problem solving and leveraging tools readily available can keep the hive calm, productive, harmonious, and even allow everyone to grow closer together

This episode is a bit of a departure from our standard conversational panel.  Let us know how you like the format and what other family business or family, succession, and business topics you would like for us to drill down, discuss and explore.

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

We are in the business of celebrating succession!  What better way to celebrate succession planning than to talk about growth in the business.  You, as a business owner, are in a power position.  With action, you can create control over your future.

Consolidation has been a major theme for some time now.  COVID-19 created an added layer of pressure, enhancing buy-sell activity.  Business owners who have invested in succession planning already have options, know what they want, and are already implementing their growth strategies. However, for owners who have been misled to believe succession planning is just about the exit and retirement, you have some catch-up work in front of you.

In our first “Succession Palooza” series focused on Succession, Growth and Acquisitions, Dan Gavin with Bernstein Private Wealth Management, Michael Rosendahl with PCE Investment Bankers, and our very own succession planner, Loyd Rawls discusses how you can seek succession through business growth and acquisitions. 

Topics include:

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has forced us all to think outside of our comfort zone. We all were forced to operate differently from our norm, which results in changing perspectives. Employees’ and customers’ mindsets have changed which means it is essential for leaders and owners to also think differently. 

The recruitment and retention of top talent are essential to building business value, sustaining business performance, implementing strategic plans, and consequently, the achievement of your succession goals.

Champ Rawls, a succession planner with The Rawls Group, and Suzanne Malo, Director of DHG Search discuss various innovative recruiting and retention strategies to land top talent. Topics include:

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

Depending upon one’s perspective, value can take on many different meanings. Banks, IRS, Wall Street, valuation specialists, business owners, vendors, strategic relationships (franchisor/manufacturer) all view value differently. And depending upon one’s reasoning for determining value, one’s approach/view could change such as – buying, selling, transferring stock, etc

Champ Rawls a Partner of The Rawls Group and Gina Miller who is a Partner with Bennett Thrasher in their Dispute, Valuation, and Forensics department discuss what creates Business VALUE.

Tune in and learn the magic behind building business value. Value is not just determined by gross revenue and profits, leadership bench strength, relationship with strategic vendors and community perception also impact value.

  Topics discussed:

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

Culture is the foundation of what a company is built – it is precious and irreplaceable. It is one thing that you have to be intentional about maintaining through change, which means working harder on it than anything else.  IF, of course, you are looking to build not just a company, but a legacy.

Core values act as the guiding principles or “headlights” for the organization as the leadership evaluates decisions in regards to recruitment, strategic planning, and how daily interactions are handled with employees and customers. Over time, if not tended to, core values can erode. As a fellow entrepreneur and one who has a heart for culture, Loyd Rawls founder of The Rawls Group, shares insight that can be applied to your unique organization.

Key topics of the episode include:

For more resources on building a strong business and succession planning, visit www.seekingsuccession.com. And leverage our Succession Readiness Survey. A 7-minute investment in time will put you in an informed position of opportunities many business owners overlook impacting business value, growth, lifestyle, and ultimately achieving your vision.

Jeff Bannon a Partner of The Rawls Group and Aicha Bascaro, President of American Franchise Academy discuss leadership – keys for developing people, attracting top talent, and creating opportunities within your franchise organization for growth.

Many franchisees dream of going from owning one unit to becoming multi-unit business owners and building generational wealth.  However; growth is challenged by a worker shortage.

Topics discussed in this podcast episode include:

Primary challenges franchisees are facing related to talent

Changes in motivation or expectations of up-and-coming leaders

 Why franchisees struggle to recruit people out of college as an attractive career choice

How franchisees overcome the “from college to manager entitlement” mentality

How a franchisee can move from working in their business to working on their business

How franchisees build a sustainable talent model to grow from the inside

How franchisees can attract young talent who want to stay & grow with their organization

How  franchisees can gain the skills & trust to develop leaders

How franchisees can use succession planning as a tool to recruit & retain talent

The impact on franchisees if they don’t make the shift to recruit & retain leaders?

Where ARE all of the leaders?