Family own business represents the oldest and most prevalent type of business organizations worldwide and it can be seen in different type of business entities. It is a unique business with many elements different from other non-family business, such as continuity purpose, business and family relationship, business value, family culture, quick decision making, flexibility, and succession.
The survival rate of family own business beyond the founder’s generation is extremely low. Successions have become main reason for it. Because of that succession failure, there are number of attempts brought their attention to give solution for it. Despite these studies on the issue on the business literature so far, it still remains unsolved because there has been little attempts to put them into practice.
Within the framework of the NEXT Project it is intended to develop training packages which are needed by company owners, managers, and counsellors for a successful succession by considering main factors behind the succession. The project will contribute to an increase in SME`s sustainability both locally and in the international scene through use of innovative training technologies such as e-learning to train SMEs owners (successors) and the second generation (successee`s) and the managers who want to specialize in this field; transfer to the enterprise to the second generation (succession).
Objectives of the project include;
  • increasing capacities of SMEs owner, managers and second generation to a level compatible with the established enterprises from EU 15 with regards to management capabilities for succession, 
  • facilitating the developments in emerging Central and Eastern European economies which necessitate sustainability of the SME`s in order to increase capacity in the region,
  • producing a system to minimize identified training gaps across partner countries and the gap between regions in individual partner countries by generating dialogue among the trainers from partner countries, and
  • transferring best practices and expertise between the partners.
The project will add value to the "planned succession" culture of the participating countries. The former traditional succession methods which are mostly "from father to the eldest son" will be replaced by a planned succession activity which will occur after all parties have been trained and ready to take over and to leave the business. The project is aiming to create a planned succession culture among the SME owners, which will facilitate susceptibility of the business entities.


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