Initial Questions To Consider  

There are many steps individuals and organizations can take to help these Mutual Success transitions succeed once they make the choice to do so.  However, some critical success factors must already exist deep in the organization's culture and values.  If these factors are not present, no amount of last minute planning or engineering can make them appear. 

Before deciding to entertain or propose a Mutual Success transition, founders, potential successors, and boards of directors need to ask themselves some very tough questions about their organization and answer them with integrity.  

For Organizations

• Is there an organizational imperative that causes the benefits to outweigh the cost of the founder's continued presence?
  

• Is there widely-shared agreement about the organization's goals, strategies, and needed institutional changes for the next 3 -5 years?

• Does the board challenge and disagree with the founder when they believe he is wrong?  How often has the board influenced the course of the founder's decision-making in the interest of the organization?

• Does the organization share power and have a culture of partnership?

• What evidence is there that the board is prepared to take on the financial commitments, time commitments, and monitoring necessary to properly support a Mutual Success transition?

• Is power appropriately shared and distributed within the organization?  Does it have an internal culture of partnership across levels?

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Success Factors To Review

Table for Two found that to have a Mutual Success transition that truly benefits the organization, the founder, successor, and organization each needed to possess particular characteristics that helped and did not inhibit the success of the transition.  Read below to learn about what a organization needs.




Download the report to help you explore these key questions and characteristics and deepen your understanding of how other organizations have implemented this model.