Hello KSKOers
When I was researching Founder’s Syndrome, I came across an article by Dean Steele, which made me think that there was far more to say than what could be said in one article. So, this is the second in a series about Founder’s Syndrome. In this article, we’ll explore what happens when a Founder leaves an organisation unexpectedly and at short notice. We explore organisational readiness and set out some ideas for business continuity.
Looking forward to joining you on your learning journey!
In the first article, we explored Founder’s Syndrome as a developmental challenge; what happens when the very strengths that built an organisation begin to constrain it. This time, I want to explore a question that feels a little more uncomfortable. Not what happens when a founder stays too long, but what happens when they disappear, and the question that follows on its coat tails…. ‘what happens when they still hang around?’. It sounds a bit Machiavellian, but from what I’ve read, it makes sense to consider your organisation’s answer to both.
A Norwegian Study
Dean Steele, a governance writer whose work I came across recently explored an interesting piece of research. He explored a large-scale study that tracked more than 70,000 Norwegian startups and observed what happened to firms when their founders died unexpectedly. The findings were stark: sales fell significantly on average, profitability dropped and survival rates decreased. Notably, the effects persisted; there was no automatic bounce back after a period and the impact if the loss hit organisations hard.
The study found that where the founder was still actively employed in the business in roles like CEO, the impact was significantly worse. Sudden departures were harder than anticipated ones. And most tellingly of all, the death of a founder chief executive had much greater effects than the death of a non-founder chief executive. It wasn’t about transition turbulence, it was directly linked to the founder’s specific knowledge and relationships being cut off, in an instant.
The study wasn’t about charities, which I appreciate, but the challenge is the same, and in some ways the stakes in the charitable sector are……
Read more….