Pilot testing of the
Business succession
Model in the Mazovian
Region (Poland)

BIG PILOT ACTION
The event was organised in Radom, Poland on the 14 of November 2018.
16 participants represented the following organisations: Labour Office at
local and regional level, Estate Agency, Journalist agency, Municipal Council of
Radom, Marshal Office in Warsaw, Banks, Member of Polish Parliament,
Agency for Mazovia Development, Councilman of Radom, Company
focusing on recycling management, Company focusing on air-conditioning
systems and industrial automation, Company of energy branch, Company of
tabaco branch, Company focusing on ecological products. The meeting was
moderated by Mr. Marek Mieńkowski (EUROSOFT company).

SMALL PILOT ACTION
The small pilot action was also organised in Radom, Poland, the next
day - 15 of November 2018, and was led by Mrs. Maria Gagacka, PhD. The
participants of the small pilot action represented different organisations from
Radom, Poland: Centre for Continuing Education in Radom; TIR –SERWIS;
GGG Sp. z o. o.; LOLEX- Gates and Fences; Armed – Ort (enterprise offering
a wide range of medical supplies); Department of the Radom Economic
Zone created in the Municipal Office of the Service Department of the Radom
Economic Zone; Regional Labour Office in Radom.

MEETINGS CONCLUSIONS
BIG PILOT ACTION
1. Succession in family companies is a new topic in a present Polish economy. The lack of tradition of transferring the company into the hands of subsequent owners (most of the companies were created after the year 1989), causes that we are dealing with the first generation of successors.
2. There are no institutions / law offices / individual people on the market that are specialized in conducting the succession process, both in terms of organization management, as well as legal and tax aspects.
3. Thinking about the succession should start de facto already when the company enters the development phase and starting bringing profits.
4. A very difficult element is the separation of property from management. While this problem can be solved at the organizational and legal level, it is still difficult due to psychological reasons of the owner and the family members.
5. In the point of view of the participants of the pilot action, the most advantageous model concerns taking over the company by an external manager or a long-term employee of the company (due to competency reasons).
6. An external manager can bring benefits to the company as far as it concerns new technological and organizational solutions.


SMALL PILOT ACTION
1. Managerial succession should not be the main path in business succession.
2. When assessing the prospects for the popularity of forms of succession, family succession is the most appropriate, which has a strategic dimension.
3. The processional nature of succession requires preparation after the company's establishment and stabilization.
4. Parents, who are the owners of the companies, have many instruments to influence the career paths of their children and they positively assessed this impact and inclusion of children in the company's mission, values and culture.
5. Managerial succession has little chance of popularizing due to changes at the labour market. Becoming a real fact of so-called employee market significantly weakens the motivation to take risks related to succession.
6. Advisory and information support should be provided by associations and chambers of entrepreneurs, also through the promotion of various succession paths and their threats.
7. Succession is a sociological problem, not a purely economic and legal ones.