Planning
for the
worst
WWhen the worst-case scenario becomes reality — a car accident, a terminal diag- nosis, a heart attack — businesses need to continue operations even if the leader is no longer at the helm.
“The question is: ‘How are we going
to survive?’ That is an important question, but it is narrow and reactive,” says
George Waggott, a lawyer with McMillan
LLP’s Employment and Labour Relations
group in Toronto.
An atmosphere of grief, shock, and
confusion is not the best time to make
the best decisions, he added. “You make
more bad decisions when you make them
under pressure.”
A succession plan increases the odds
that better decisions will be made be-
cause some clear thinking has gone into
making them. “It significantly improves
the longer term chances of the business
being successful, and it also improves the
chances for maintaining family harmo-
ny,” says Roger Bryan, a senior principal
with KPMG LLP’s advisory services group
in Windsor, Ont.
