Successor
A successor is the person chosen or expected to take over a leadership role, such as CEO, managing director or chair, from the current leader of a business.
In a family business, the successor is usually a son, daughter or other relative being prepared to lead the company after the current leader. The successor can also be a non-family executive, especially during a period with an interim CEO or when the family separates ownership from management.
A family can have more than one successor for different roles: one family member may become CEO while another takes the board chair, or leadership of a separate business in the family enterprise.
Successor, heir or next generation?
These words are often mixed up. An heir inherits ownership. A successor takes over a leadership role. The next generation is everyone in the family’s younger generation, whether or not they work in the business. A child can be an heir without being the successor, and a successor may own fewer shares than their siblings. Keeping the terms apart helps families talk about fairness without confusing ownership with authority.
In practice, most successors have worked in the company for years and know it well. The difficulty is rarely knowledge. It is that the board, the senior team and the family still look to the founder. People who knew the successor as a child, or as a junior employee, have to see them differently. Why successors lose the room explains why authority does not transfer with the title.
Why it matters
A succession plan names the successor and sets the structure. It does not make them ready. Readiness is built through real responsibility, honest feedback and practice in the rooms they will lead, ideally set out in a successor development plan. How to tell if your successor is ready offers practical signs to look for.