CEPYME analyzes together with Afianza Asesores the challenge of generational change in companies

2023-06-30 10:14:10

The Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME) and Afianza Asesores have held a conference in which key aspects related to generational change and succession in companies have been discussed, to ensure their continuity when the founders start to reach their stage of maturity and consider the future, once their withdrawal occurs.

With the title of Entrepreneur: What do you want to see happen with your company in the future? Change, sale and other alternatives, experts in the field have analyzed the different possibilities to address the future of their companies, whether the founder has a generational change that is willing to take on the challenge, or if the sale is the best alternative to give continuity to the project and also capitalize many years of effort.

In this sense, CEPYME considers that this is a matter of special concern for companies, which require a precise strategy to successfully address these processes when the time comes. This situation is especially delicate in territories with depopulation problems, since companies are the best way to establish population in the territory, hence preventing its disappearance, facilitating its continuity, is a priority objective.

The president of CEPYME, Gerardo Cuerva, has pointed out that 60% of Spanish companies do not exceed five years of life, below the European average, which makes our business fabric less solid. “We are concerned about what happens in depopulated Spain, in which the non-continuity of a business goes from being an individual problem to being a collective problem”, he pointed out. In this sense, Cuerva has highlighted that “generational replacement, whether family or not, appears to be a priority in the fight against depopulation in the interior of Spain. The challenge is to make it possible for the greatest number of successful transactions to take place in companies”.

The experts from Afianza Asesores have exposed in this meeting the importance of having a comprehensive model that prepares the company for the new stage and ensures the least impact and greatest satisfaction for all the actors involved (employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, relatives , etc.). The importance of the legal institution of the family protocol has been discussed as a guide that helps the employer to organize the generational replacement of family members who are involved in the company and want to continue with the activity. In this way, it will be possible to maintain the value of the company over time, avoiding unwanted processes such as closing and the consequent liquidation and dissolution.

As an alternative, in the event that this generational change does not exist, during the conference it was revealed that the sale of a company initially requires preparation and planning, to guarantee employment and maximize the price of the transaction, they have been reviewed the fundamental aspects that affect the value of the company and finally the key aspects to consider in a sales process have been exposed, as well as the different phases of the same.