- About the Project

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Project consortium
bit management Beratung GmbH (AT)
FH Joanneum GmbH (AT)
Wirtschaftskammer Steiermark, Fachgruppe für Unternehmensberatung und Informationstechnologie (AT)
Berufsfortbildungswerk des DGB (DE)
StudioCentroVeneto (IT)
SVASTA Business Consulting (RO)
CRM Consulting (TR)
Copenhagen Business School (DK)
ESIC Business&Marketing School (ES)

Background for the project
The background for this project is that Europe consists, to a large extent, of micro, small and medium- sized enterprises. Every year, thousands of healthy businesses and together with them, hundreds of thousands of jobs, disappear from the market, because there was no plan for the business succession. According to statistical data, there are about 610.000 SMEs per year in Europe with about 2,4 million employees who need a successor for their company. From the business and economic standpoint, many of these businesses are indeed worth being maintained. But if these companies cannot find an appropriate successor, these jobs will be lost.
The handing over or take-over of an enterprise requires careful planning and a variety of arrangements, which must be made early to guarantee a successful succession. The awareness for the necessity of long-term and strategic planning of the business succession, as well as measures for the assurance and simplification of business succession is still missing at the European level.
This project will contribute to raising the awareness of the importance of planned business succession. Furthermore, it will contribute to maintaining jobs in micro and SMEs in Europe and strengthen Europe’s economy based on long-term considerations.

Target groups
The project will contribute to the optimal preparation for the business succession process, because very often, business successions take place much too fast and the possible consequences haven’t been carefully thought through. It primarily addresses people who want to start up their own business, without having to reinvent everything, by taking-over an existing enterprise. Therefore, the target group of the business successors is divided into three sub-groups:

1.Family members – business successors within the family

2.MBOs: (management buy out) - these are employees within the company who are interested in taking over the company

3.MBIs: (management buy in) these are external persons who are interested in taking over a company

The planned training is specifically designed to determine the needs of business successors. This is important in order to avoid the mistakes which can be made due to a lack of knowledge concerning business succession.

The topic of “business succession” is predominantly an issue for the small- and medium-sized businesses that dominate the European economy. This is why the project focuses exclusively on this business sector. The key elements of business succession are very similar within the different industrial sectors, but this project will concentrate on the small- and medium sized businesses from the industry and trade sector, since this is where most of the jobs, which are affected by business succession, can be found. This, of course, does not mean that the newly developed curriculum for business succession and the screening tool will not be able to be expanded and adapted for other industrial sectors in the future.

Expected Project Results

Development of a curriculum for business succession
An innovative course will be developed on the topic of business succession at the European level. The main emphasis of the course will be on the preparation of enterprise successors for the planned take-over-process.
Therefore, the project’s main aim is a qualified course which should end with a diploma. The training consists of various modules which enable the business successors to maintain an existing business. Educational, economic and personality building contents are combined with teaching and studying methods suitable for adults.
The idea of a modular curriculum is to develop basic modules, which are the same in all of the countries of the European Union, as well as so-called regional modules, which will reflect regional or national conditions and frameworks. The modular construction ensures that everyone attends those modules where training is needed.

As a business succession normally means deep cuts into the whole structure of the business, many questions are raised concerning succession law, labour law, the financial situation, liability, taxes and personnel. The training will cover an integral concept for business succession and includes technical aspects connected with handing over a business, as well as aspects of enterprise leadership.

Therefore, the training will emphasize the following modules:

Legal aspects of the succession (tax law, law of succession, labour law, contract law)
Financing and recapitalization (financial configuration, liability, funding systems, recapitalization and reorganisation measures)
Analysis and evaluation of the company (business analysis of the past according to the balance sheet, profit and loss account) and initial training for the screening tool
Marketing (market analysis: branch, competition, market environment)
Social Skills (negotiation tactics, the career path from employee to boss, management of conflict and crises)
Human Resources (Personnel development)

The innovative training concept of the “Business Transfer Programme” is a modern blended learning concept and will combine face to face trainings, project oriented methods, e-learning, individual coaching and learning from practical experience.

Development of the Screening Tool
A specific screening tool tailored to the take-over process, accompanies the development of the curriculum. This tool consists of a specific question catalogue and is based on a benchmark database that enables the business successors to perform an initial evaluation of the legal, economic and technical situation of the enterprise. The screening tool will contain special check lists depending on the planned modules in the curriculum.

Execution of a pilot course and regular evaluation process
The developed curriculum and screening tool will be tested within the scope of the execution of the prototype in two partner countries (trans-national in Austria/Germany and Italy) and adapted through the regular evaluation during the project and the final evaluation at the end of the project. This ensures that the experience and knowledge gained by the project partners will influence the further curriculum development and lead to sustainable training on the European market.

Internet platform
An Internet platform will be set up to support and link the project-partners, the participants and the institutions and to facilitate the exchange of information. The platform will provide information about the project, the current project-progress and the achieved results. The platform will serve to advertise and describe the curriculum for anyone interested in the course and will support the dissemination-process of the project-partners.
Furthermore, the pilot course participants will have the possibility to exchange opinions, to compare notes and to link-up.

Valorisation activities

Of particular importance for the project is the valorisation process (utilization and use of the project results) throughout the duration of the project and also after the project is completed. This will ensure that potential users of the project results (people taking over a company, or those looking for a successor) are not only kept informed about the planned training and screening tool but are also actively included in the development of the course.
The project results are submitted to the public in the partner countries throughout the duration of the project through appropriate events (business start-up fairs, Follow me initiatives, lectures on business start-ups), the dedicated Internet platform of the project syndicate or existing Internet platforms for business take-overs.

Cooperation with existing start-up and follow-up-programs and foundation relevant institutions, will assure that persons who start up a business will be kept informed about the “Business Transfer Programme” and its results.

There will be cooperation with management consultants (such as the management consultants section of the national chambers of commerce), who will work as coaches for the transfer process and to pass on information about the programme to the relevant target group.

The Labour market service will highlight the possibility of a business take-over in the framework of its consultation to persons who would like to become self-employed.

The developed project results (curriculum and screening tool) will be offered on the European education market with the aim of disseminating and sustaining the project after the Leonardo supported project is concluded.