Business Session
Business in Transition Session
A private strategy session for two important moments when the structure of a business, and your place within it, is about to change or is already changing as you're reading this.
This session is for:
01. Family succession or a generational transfer
02. Founders or co-founders preparing for growth, investment or further dilution
This session gives us the time and space to look ahead, think a few moves further and make deliberate choices about what happens next, with someone firmly in your corner to question, challenge and think it through with you. One decision tends to tip into the next, and before long, the whole board can look different.
We look at what is about to change, what that means for you and the business, the decisions ahead and anything worth getting clear on now. That might mean roles and responsibilities, ownership, decision-making, different interests, continuity, assumptions that need testing or conversations that need to happen.
Family succession & generational transfer:
You are considering taking over the family business, already know that you will or are somewhere in the middle of making the transition happen.
There is the practical side of a generational transfer, of course. But there is also the much bigger question of what happens when one generation begins to step back and another starts making the business its own.
We can look at what taking over would actually mean for you, what kind of role you want, what you would like to preserve and what you would like to change. We can explore ownership, responsibilities and decision-making, but also the expectations underneath them and what the company will actually need from both generations for the transition to work.
You get my experience and strategic perspective, but also an open space to talk, contemplate, have doubts, think out loud, be incredibly ambitious, be the most confident version of yourself or be somewhere in between. All of it is useful information when you are making decisions that may shape the next years of both your business and your life.
This is a custom session, which means we use the time for what your situation actually needs. We can explore, map out, calculate, compare or simply have the conversation that needs to be had.
Does everyone mean the same thing when they talk about “taking over”? How much room will there really be to do things differently? What role will the previous generation have afterwards? Who will be responsible for what? Where will decision-making authority sit? What needs to remain stable for employees, customers and the business itself? And importantly, what do you want the next chapter to look like?
If you are still deciding whether taking over is right for you, we can properly explore what saying yes would mean, what you would need to make the business your own and under which circumstances taking over would or would not make sense for you.
If the transition is already happening, we can look at what still needs attention, where responsibilities or authority need to shift, which expectations need to become explicit and what would make the handover work better in everyday business life.
We can also prepare for an important conversation, compare different transition scenarios or work through a proposed arrangement and ask a very practical question: what would this actually look like once everyone goes back to work on Monday, and what would your Sundays look like for the next five years?
You leave with decisions made, expectations clarified, roles or responsibilities better defined, assumptions identified and a much sharper picture of your own place in the transition.
A family business already has a history. The interesting question is what you want to build with it next.
Founders, co-founders & incoming investment:
You may be bringing in a new investor, preparing for another funding round or diluting further. Perhaps your own role is changing as the company grows. Perhaps the dynamic between you and your co-founder needs another conversation before the next phase begins. Or perhaps everything is going brilliantly and you simply want to understand what the decisions in front of you could set in motion.
There can be a lot to be excited about here. There can also be a lot worth thinking through while you still have the space to do so.
What happens to your position as a founder? What are you comfortable giving up, and what matters enough to protect? How could new investors change the way the company works in practice? Where will decision-making authority sit? What do you want your own role to become as the business grows? And are you and your co-founder still working towards the same version of the future?
We can compare scenarios, think through further dilution, untangle different interests, test assumptions, pressure-test a decision or work through something you know needs to become clearer before the next step.
We can also zoom out further.
If everything goes well and the company becomes considerably larger, do the choices you are making now still make sense? What becomes possible? What changes for you? Which responsibilities do you actually want to keep? What kind of founder do you want to be in the next version of the company? And what would you rather decide deliberately now than discover by accident later?
You leave with decisions made, scenarios compared, assumptions tested, a much clearer sense of your own position or a list of questions you now know need answering before the next step.
And you certainly do not need to arrive with a problem. Sometimes the opportunity in front of you is brilliant. You simply want to make sure you are making equally good decisions around it.
Before we meet:
Before we meet, I’ll ask you for some context: who is involved, what is changing, where things currently stand and what you would like us to work on. I'll first send you a short email. Afterwards I will prep your secure online platform, where you can upload documents.
Send me anything that helps me understand the situation. That might be a proposal, notes, an ownership structure, a role description, a scenario you are considering or simply the context in your own words.
You do not need to turn it into a polished explanation for me. I know how to read between the lines. With my background, I understand the more formal side of these transitions. Our work together here focuses on the business and human questions around them: the roles, interests, decisions, relationships and realities that determine what an arrangement will actually feel like once it leaves the spreadsheet and becomes everyday life.
I prepare beforehand, so when we meet, we can get straight into the good stuff.
We think, question, compare and work things through together. I bring business judgement, strategic thinking and an independent perspective, and I am very happy to ask the question everyone else has been carefully walking around.
We might compare two possible routes, look at what a decision sets in motion, untangle different interests, test an assumption, sharpen your own position or work out which conversations and decisions need to happen, and in what order.
I look for the gap between what has been discussed and what the business will actually need once the changes settle. So you could say I am there to help you see the situation clearly, understand what it asks of the business and the people involved and think a few moves ahead.
Where legal, tax, valuation or financial advice is needed, those questions belong with the relevant specialist. This session does not replace that work. It helps us work through the business decisions around it and identify the questions worth taking into those conversations.
The goal of our session is simple: use our time well, get somewhere meaningful and leave you considerably clearer about what comes next.
See you soon,
Merel
Session
Business In Transition Session
Format
Online Digital Meeting Room, or live in the Netherlands
Timezone
Europe/Amsterdam. Your local time will be shown in the booking tool.
“Let’s make the next chapter clear”