Many successful companies have humble origins, started by someone with a belief and passion and with an eye to solving a sector-specific challenge.
Founder-led companies often evolved on the go, adapting and growing as markets or client needs changed. There wasn’t necessarily a road map – growth was organic and driven by a range of factors.
Inevitably however, there comes a point where a company with broad ambitions transitions from being a founder-owned or family-owned business to being a business that is independently managed by professional executives separated from the board of directors and shareholders.
Frequently, the decision to change the trajectory of a company coincides with a leadership change to shepherd this evolution, and changes to the corporate structure of the company – particularly when a company has grown and evolved organically from a small base.
It represents a seismic shift for most companies, and leaders underestimate the complexity and impact of that shift at their peril.
Change is hard
Honouring the role and journey of the founder in the company is an important part of assuming the mantle of leadership – and yet it’s crucial for the incoming CEO to remember why they are there.
They have been selected for their own strengths and skills, not because they necessarily resemble or will follow directly in the footsteps of their predecessor.
Organisational change is hard, but it is also necessary – we all know the cautionary tales of companies that either failed to evolve, or didn’t do so fast enough, and who paid a high price for their stasis in an ever-shifting marketplace.
It’s arguably even more challenging for an internal hire, who, regardless of their previous success and demonstrated ability for the position, will be judged for their actions and initiatives in their new role, and must establish trust with their employees all over again.
This is amplified when the leadership transition coincides with repositioning the company and making strategic decisions to ensure the future longevity and success of the business.
Opportunities abound
An excellent article by McKinsey accurately comments that, “By the nature of the role, a new senior leader’s action or inaction will significantly influence the course of the business, for better or for worse.”
This degree of change can be intimidating, but it also offers a great opportunity for companies to take stock, assess their strengths and weaknesses with clear eyes, and look at where the strategic opportunities lie for the future, finding possible routes toward those opportunities.
Here, it’s crucial to not be swayed by sentiment or nostalgia, but to adopt a view that is realistic about the challenges the company is facing, and all the options available to secure a productive outlook.
The goal should always be to emerge with a calibrated, forward-looking plan that future-proofs the company. Of course, this is not easy – balancing short-term needs with long-term goals is a delicate task.
Expecting and preparing for some bumps in the road is both pragmatic and sensible, along with robust change management tools.
Learning and growing
When I assumed the position of CEO at SYSPRO, I followed in the footsteps of a popular and charismatic leader. Co-founder Phil Duff was synonymous with the brand and had put his stamp on the company for 46 years.
Now, it was up to the next generation of leadership to safeguard that legacy while at the same time, moving the company to a new level of global professionalism that would take the company in a new direction.
Like every new leader, I arrived in the position with a mandate from the board and outgoing CEO, and my clear strategic vision to shape a future-ready company.
This included an overhaul of the executive team to meet the challenges of a global multi-territory company experiencing a period of almost unprecedented change and economic headwinds.
My goals for the company were clear: to become a truly global company; for it to be simpler to do business with us; and to do fewer things exceptionally well.
To achieve these ambitious goals, we had to transition to a professional management team. This required the introduction an executive layer to align with international best practices for a company of this size.
To support this, we made changes to many parts of the business, all of which represented significant transformation within the company.
In another part of this strategic evolution, a significant milestone was achieved recently when the senior leadership team announced a new investor that would allow the company to expand its global footprint.
This decision was not taken lightly and came at the end of a months-long search spearheaded by Phil Duff and the senior leadership team, with a focus on finding an investor that would enable global growth while retaining the spirit and ethos of our DNA and culture.
These moves were necessary to position SYSPRO successfully for the next 45 years, and there is a great sense of achievement to have successfully initiated an exciting new phase of growth and development.
One key lesson from my experience in this leadership succession is that succeeding a charismatic founder has many benefits – in this instance, inheriting a robust and flourishing business.
Securing a new investor is part of this ongoing journey to foster advancement across all our global markets. I am optimistic about the company’s future, and I feel honoured to lead this next chapter.
Jaco Maritz is Global Chief Executive Officer at SYSPRO.
The Star