Jakub Hollman on succession: when to hand over a family business

Jakub Hollman is a lawyer and partner at the law firm Portos, as well as at CCS Premium Trust, a company that deals with professional asset management, protection of family capital and its transfer to the next generations. According to him, building a company takes decades, but it can be destroyed in a few months: inheritance disputes or a failed business handover can break even a working enterprise.

Hollman’s main idea is that a business should be handed over while its owner still has strength and energy. “Owners often don’t want to give the wheel to someone else while their health serves them. It is a hard decision, but they must hand the firm over while they still have the strength,” he says.

How to tell the time has come. An owner or CEO must be as critical as possible, above all of themselves, and honestly assess whether they are keeping up with the pace of new technology and competitors. If not, the company should be transformed or prepared for handover to someone who is better oriented in the current market situation, learns new tools faster and is able to move the firm forward.

What those who ignore the signals risk. The founding generation often believes that if you have run a company one way for thirty years, that is the recipe for the next decades too. But technology is developing ever faster, and Czech and foreign competition is growing, so a firm cannot survive on its own momentum alone. By missing the moment for transformation or handover, owners, in Hollman’s words, lose the chance irretrievably: the company loses its competitiveness and does not survive in the long term.

When it is already too late for a smooth handover. When the owner is pushed by a problem with health, finances or relationships. If they want the work of their life to outlive them, receive a new impulse and continue to provide for the family, management and assets must be handed over in good time.

Hollman’s advice, grown out of many years of practice, is simple: prepare for the handover of a family business early and calmly, not at a moment of crisis.