Passing it On: BAM Succession Planning and Exit Strategies
by David Skews
Editors Note: When we asked veteran BAM leaders to identify some of the pressing issues that are facing the business as mission movement in the next decade, among the issues they identified were several areas that could broadly be categorized as ‘resource gaps for BAM companies’, including:
1. Adequate financial capital flow.
2. Adequate human capital flow – both in terms of a) recruiting the right kind of people to begin and sustain a BAM company, and b) succession planning and the successful transition of a BAM company from one generation of owners to another.
3. Adequate support for BAM practitioners, especially mentoring, accountability and care.
We will be posting articles covering each of these issues during the month of June, continuing with the challenge of human capital flow, part b: succession planning.
BAM Succession Planning & Exit Strategies
In the beginning God created a BAM Business but when is it time to pass it on?
I can guess why I was asked to write something on exit strategies by the editorial team!
Having founded a business in the UK in the 1980s, I later realised how it might be used by God with the help of a BAM conference I attended in 2003. Scaling the business was tricky, opening offices in Singapore and then into Southeast Asia. We had a bumpy ride in the 2010s and I completed my exit strategy through the sale of the company – specifically, a management buyout (MBO) – in 2014.
I am currently engaged in advising over 100 BAM businesses on their journey from pre start-up to lean start-up, and now some scaling-up. I am currently working with a BAM business in Asia that is planning the succession of owners, along with a collaboration of two BAM companies as part of a medium-term exit plan. Read more