FromSuccesstoSuccession.com : An Innovative Web Site Ensuring a Company's Succession
March 31, 2008
HEC Montréal’s Chair of Small and Medium-size Business Development and Succession, in collaboration with National Bank of Canada; BCF, Lawyers, Patent and Trademark Agents; Solidarity Fund QFL; PricewaterhouseCoopers; and SECOR-TAKTIK, is proud to announce the brand new Web site From Success to Succession (FromSuccesstoSuccession.com) for current business owner-managers and potential company successors
A successful business transfer to a new generation of managers and owners is a delicate operation that can often be challenging. This is the context driving the initiative of the Chair of Small and Medium-size Business Development and Succession of HEC Montréal and its partners to create an original Web site that is useful to any person thinking about taking over or transferring a business, whether it is a family company or any other kind of SME.
For Michel Patry, Director of HEC Montréal, “The issues surrounding a successful business transfer are crucial for the business community. I am pleased that the Chair’s project, which is so beneficial for the development of Quebec businesses, won the support of such prestigious partners. With their support we can provide entrepreneurs a tool that is relevant, complete, and current.”
Divided into the themes Think, Choose, and Act, the FromSuccesstoSuccession.com site offers potential successors and current owner-managers a framework for thinking and acting that is applicable to the specific situation of the company concerned. “Why a transfer, under what conditions? Why take over an existing company and how can I succeed? These are the fundamental questions,” highlighted by the Chairholder of the Chair of SME Development and Succession, Louise St-Cyr. “With testimonials, the FromSuccesstoSuccession.com site is the fruit of several years of labour researching and conducting surveys. It is a real working guide that covers the human, strategic, tax, financial, and legal aspects of a business transfer,” adds Ms. St-Cyr.
The entrepreneur is led through the steps by questionnaires and explanatory tables. FromSuccesstoSuccession.com also offers a virtual library, a toolbox, a point of contact with the Chair and links to programs specific to each of the partners.
About the Chair of Small and Medium-size Business Development and Succession
The Chair was established in 1998 with the directive to thoroughly investigate the evolution of SMEs. This research is based on the development of SMEs (good management, growth and finance); women entrepreneurs; and the succession to the entrepreneur-manager, vital for the continuation of the SME. The Chair’s actions mainly focus on owner-managers, the organizations that finance them and various governmental bodies who are interested in the development of SMEs.
Photo : Fonds de solidarité FTQ
From left to right: Claude Marier, Principal – Mid-sized enterprises and institutions counseling, SECOR-TAKTIK; Gabriel Nadon, Portfolio Manager – Fonds Relève PME, Solidarity Fund QFL; Nathalie Gagnon, partner and co-leader of the strategic business transfers team, BCF; Mario Lecaldare, Senior Vice-President – Commercial Banking, National Bank; Louise St-Cyr, Holder of the Chair of Small and Medium-size Business Development and Succession, HEC Montréal; Guy Leblanc, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Michel Patry, Director, HEC Montréal