Succession & Mittelstand
Handing over to your own employees — chances and limits
Those looking for a successor often look outside. Yet the right person is sometimes already in the business — someone who knows it like almost no one else.
22 July 2026 · 4 min read
The advantage: no stranger has to learn the business first
A long-serving employee knows the processes, the customers and the culture of the house. Handing over to them preserves knowledge and trust automatically — the very things a newcomer has to build up laboriously.
For the workforce it is also a strong signal: the business stays in familiar hands, nothing is overturned overnight.
The limit: entrepreneurial responsibility is something else
A good foreman or a good department head is not automatically a good entrepreneur. Leadership, financing, liability and bearing risk are a different role from before — and not everyone wants or can fill it.
Honestly examining whether someone truly wants that role is part of respect for the person — overwhelming no one helps.
Often the middle way is best
A combination frequently works: an employee takes on responsibility, a partner brings capital and entrepreneurial experience, and the previous owner accompanies the transition. The substance is preserved without overwhelming anyone.
What matters is asking this question early — then there is time to find the right path.
The best successor is sometimes already in the business. Whether they are the right one is decided not by proximity, but by the honest question of whether they truly want to carry the role.