Never too soon for succession planning

With the recent recession we have seen many succession plans put on hold resulting in many frustrated owners who cannot find the right person to develop and take over or future partners whose career path has stalled due to postponed promotions, expansions, retirements etc.

As much as the economic circumstances impact on the decision making it is still important to remember the timescales you may have to work to regardless, especially if you are working towards retirement or a fixed date of exit. 

For example if you need to exit in 3 -5 years and want to handover the business to younger partners, recruiting someone externally is likely to require someone to be in the firm for a couple of years so they can bed in, build relationships with clients and staff alike; they may need business development experience or need to build a portfolio and this will take time. 

They will then need the time to buy in or raise funds, so with all this in mind you would really need to appoint someone in the next 12 months; the search may take a couple of months to find the right person and they are likely to be on 3 month’s notice, effectively meaning the search should start about now!

We've had many years experience in this market recruiting for practices large and small at all levels and have introduced many candidates with prospects for progression from aspiring managers through to partners with fee following, even during the toughest recession.  

As the market improves competition for these candidates will increase and the pressure to appoint will be great, it is during these times you need a consultancy you can trust to be technically aware, skilled at recruitment, honest and unbiased.

So start the search at the earliest opportunity and choose your recruitment agent wisely for what could be a life changing appointment.