The Business Transfer Programme (BTP) has ended with 31.10.2008. During the period of more than two years the project consortium developed, tested and implemented many products for the business succession market. The main project outcomes are:

 

► Curriculum for business succession

► Screening Tool for a company’s check

 

 

► Curriculum for business succession

The developed training is an innovation on the European education-market as comparable measures concerning the business transfer are still missing.

As a business succession typically involves substantial changes of the business structure, many questions are raised concerning succession law, labour law, and the financial situation, liability, taxes and human resources issues. The training is designed as a modern blended learning concept combining face to face trainings, project oriented methods, e-learning, individual coaching and learning from practical experience. A project website offers a lot of learning possibilities like a discussion forum; areas for FAQ’s and download areas for important learning material.

The training modules are:

► Finance

► Legal Aspects

► Business Analysis

► Marketing

► Soft Skills

► Human Resource Management

 

 

► Screening Tool

The Screening Tool, tailored to the take-over process, accompanies the training.

In addition to the training, a specific technical instrument, the Screening Tool, was designed to meet the requirements and demands of business successors, transferors, as well as self-employed management consultants. It is a very flexible web-based tool, time and place independent, adapted to the needs of small and medium sized enterprises and consists of two main parts:

►   Detailed question catalogue including questions

      on the general, legal, finance, marketing, human

      resources, location and technical infrastructure

      situation of the company and

►   Benchmark data base which is based on a detailed

      summarization of relevant management

      ratios for specific industries (carpenter, mechanics,

      locksmith, hairdresser, bars&restaurants, retail)

 

For further information on the technical tool look at: http://btp.bitonline.cc

The project consortium handed in a contract amendment for the extension of the project duration until the end of October 2008, because of a delay of two months at the beginning of the project in autumn 2006. During this time the outstanding adaptation measures are made, open tasks are carried out and a handbook is produced for the further valorisation of the project and its results.

The final partner meeting took place on the 2^nd of July 2008 in Copenhagen and was organized by the Danish project partner “Copenhagen Business School”.

In the meeting open issues were discussed, like the fine-tuning of the curriculum and screening tool, setting up of a calculation model, the production of the book, financial matters, further work task distribution, the valorisation activities and a follow-up project – “BTP 2”. 

 

The Final Conference took place on the 3^rd and 4^th of July 2008 - on the first day at the Hotel Kong Arthur and on the second day at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and delivered an overview about the

• Business Transfer in Europe
• Background of the project and the project work itself
• Results of the project: Curriculum, Learning platform and Screening Tool
• Advises for Business Successors/Transferors form the consultant side
• Change of the “new scenario”
• Comparison: Business Succession/Starting up a company

The BTP project consortium carried out two pilot trainings, one in Graz/Austria and one in Vicenza/Italy from February until June 2008.

19 participants in Graz and 18 participants in Vicenza joined the pilot trainings. The trainings combined presence learning (five presence blocks), the use of the learning platform (), the use of the Screening Tool (http://btp.bitonline.cc) and the continuous support of an external succession expert.

Each partner institution worked together with local training experts or trainers from other project partners to instruct the six presence modules of the training (legal, finance, analysis, marketing, soft skills and human resources). The external expert started the training with an introduction session at the beginning of the training, continued with a midterm feedback and closed the training with the final feedback session. He/she supported the participants during the whole period by phone, mail or personal meetings with the establishment of their “Transfer plan”.  

 

The feedback of the participants in Graz and Vicenza was very positive and some statements are listed:

• A good and intensive time to deal with the topic business succession
• Useful expertise, very useful guidelines and study material
• Very good and competent trainers, I have learned a lot and have got new views
• I know about the importance of strategies and targets within the take over process
• I know what is important within the take over process and I can ask the right questions to experts
• Networking and experience exchange
• Screening tool: very useful, especially as a basic check
• Learning platform: a new way of networking was possible through the installed discussion forums
• Many useful checklists on the learning platform that could be used for self study

 

The feedback of the course participants, trainers, members of the project consortium is summarized and the training is adapted and further developed with the target to install it on the training market after the end of the project.

 

Foto Pilot training in Graz:

The project consortium of the Leonardo da Vinci Project "Business Transfer Programme" will carry out the pilot training "Business Transfer Programme" in two partner countries:

Austria: Graz

Italy: Vicenza

The training compiles 6 modules to the topic Business Succession/Business Transfer and is carried out in five presence blocks beginning in February 2008 until May 2008.

Further information

In all partner countries a survey on the topic of business succession and business transfer was carried out receive information for the development of a tailor-made training program for business successors in combination with a screening tool. In total 657 responses (340 from successor's and 317 from transferor's) were gathered allowing for detailed analysis. The main outcomes include that most challenges of the transfer process are similar within Europe. However, when it comes to legal issues quite some differences exist in the different countries participating in the survey. The results will directly be implemented in the curriculum structure and the most pressing needs of successors will be fulfilled through the tailor made training program. Please check back regularly to ensure you are kept up to date as the project team will soon announce the curriculum structure and its contents.

 

3rd Partner Meeting in Vicenza, 11.-12.10.2007

The project partners met in Vicenza, Italy for the third partner meeting, organized by the Italian partner, StudioCentroVeneto.

The meeting took place at half time in the project and included the following topics:

- Review of the work packages carried out so far (achieved results, project progress)

- Development of the course content for the training "Business Transfer Programme" with regard to the survey results. The final outline of the curriculum was made. Furthermore the relation between presence/self-study/e-learning units was discussed and the time schedule fixed. Further discussion points were: the pilot cost calculation, the decision on the marketing mix for the selection of participants and the coordination of training staff.

- Development of the Screening Tool (definition of the content concerning the question catalogue and benchmarks)

- Discussion on the financial and administrative issues and the upcoming interims report

- Discussion about the final conference in Copenhagen

- Definition of next steps and work task distribution

To summarize the meeting was highly successful for all project partners where main topics for the further project progress were discussed and main decisions were finalized. You will soon be able to find the curriculum at this website. Please make sure to check back regularly.

The project consortium has been working together on the topic “Business succession/business transfer” for one year and has gained a lot of experience on this topic and on trans-national cooperation. After one year of collaborative work the project consortium is in the phase of the development of a tailor-made training for business successors and a screening tool, that will support the transferring process through checklists and a benchmark data base

The project consortium carried out a survey in all seven partner countries (AT, DE, IT, RO, TR, ES, DK) to gain information about the content for a tailor-made training for successors and a screening tool. Therefore successors and transferors in all partner countries were interviewed and each partner could choose between an online and paper based version or could combine both methods to get valid results for analysis and interpretation.
In total the survey delivered 657 results: 340 successors and 317 transferors answered the questionnaire and the survey ended at the end of May 2007. The results were gathered and analysed and deliver valuable information for the development of the training and screening tool.

The project partners of the BTP-consortium met for the second partner meeting in Sibiu, Romania at the end of April 2007.

The main contents of the meeting were:

• Presentation of the carried out activities so far by each project partner (literature, statistic and data based research; valorisation activities; development questionnaire, pretest and start of the survey);
• First presentation of the ongoing survey results of business successors and transferors;
• Discussion about the planned training and screening tool
• Discussion about the final conference in Kopenhagen
• Discussion of financial and project management issues

The duration of the online survey has been extended until end of May 2007 to provide ample opportunity for business successors and transferors to communicate their views on the succession process.

The project consortium finished the data research and analysis activities, developed a questionnaire for business successors and transferors and carried out a pre-test and the offline survey. The online survey is still ongoing until 08.05.2007.

If you are a business successor or business transferor and interested to contribute to the development of a specialised training for business successors in combination with a screening tool, please answer the online questionnaire of your country, which you will find under the following links:

Austria:

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=15

Italy:

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=16

Romania:

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=23

Germany:

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=19

Spain

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=20

Turkey

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=17

Denmark:

http://survey.bitmedia.cc/index.php?sid=22

The kick-off meeting of the project consortium took place from 05.10. - 06.10.2006 at bit management (promoting organisation) in Graz. All nine partner institutions have sent their representatives to meet each other and discuss the project details and the further cooperation.