Swiss umbrella organization for business succession officially presented

For around 93,000 Swiss SMEs, business succession will become an issue in the next five years. To ensure that as many of them as possible find a successful solution, the Swiss umbrella organization for business succession CHDU, founded on December 10, 2021, is actively involved in politics, research, the profession and practice. Behind the association is a team of around 15 highly qualified succession experts who have joined together as an ExpertCircle with a uniform market presence. Following the motto "Passing on instead of giving up", in 2018 the ExpertenCircle called for the Initiative Nachfolgebus.ch into being. This was done with the intention of sustainably securing the continued existence of SMEs and thus of economic substance and jobs in Switzerland through the targeted promotion of company succession. To this end, the ExpertenCircle toured 14 cities in German-speaking Switzerland with an Infomobile and provided SME entrepreneurs with information about business succession in free personal meetings. Thanks to extensive digitization and constant further development of the offering, the reach of the initiative expanded steadily until 2021. There has been a noticeable increase in awareness among entrepreneurs of the great importance of company succession and their own succession planning. However, the high social, economic and political relevance and acceptance has not yet been achieved. The foundation of the CHDU, in order to achieve this goal in this format and in cooperation with organizations that pursue the same interests, is therefore a next logical step. In a first phase, the association's activities will be concentrated on German-speaking Switzerland. Expansion into French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino will follow in the course of 2023.

Maintain SME diversity

The dynamics of companies in Switzerland - from their founding to their handover to the next generation, or their demise - are still too little known. Yet their scope is enormous: more than three million employees, two-thirds of the working population, work for an SME. "We cannot afford to leave Swiss SMEs alone with their business succession. Switzerland is based on sustainable SME diversity. This is also where the breeding ground for our innovative strength lies, but its value creation must be built up over generations. The 'price' we pay for unsuccessful succession arrangements in the form of job losses, know-how and innovative strength is therefore simply too high and urgently calls for countermeasures," sums up Carla Kaufmann, Vice President of the CHDU and Partner of Companymarket AG.

Swiss umbrella organization for business succession with four fields of action

The CHDU therefore focuses on raising the awareness of society, politics and business for the market dynamics of business succession and also wants to actively contribute to the positive development of successful SME successions. To this end, the association is committed to these four areas:

• In politics, to raise national and political awareness of the economic importance and relevance of business succession and long-term entrepreneurship, e.g. to make the legal framework more business- and succession-friendly.
• In research, to better understand the fundamentals and operating principles of the corporate life cycle and long-term entrepreneurship, and to make these insights available to all companies for their succession process.
• In the professionalization of succession consulting, by means of a holistic training and continuing education program that ensures a defined quality standard for the advisory support of business succession. The CHDU is developing this offer in cooperation with EXPERTsuisse. The first step is the Day Seminar "Big Picture of Successful SME Succession.
• In practice, thanks to the targeted promotion of SME succession for entrepreneurs, for example through simple and transparent access to the succession market, various free information and networking offers, etc.

The Member Offer of the CHDU is aimed at SME entrepreneurs who want to sell their company or buy a company, as well as succession advisors, fiduciaries, tax advisors, auditors, lawyers, business/organizational consultants, coaches and other professionals and/or career changers in the field of succession planning.

Canton on board

The location promotion department in the Office of Economic Affairs and Labor (AWA) of the Canton of Zurich supports the development and expansion of the association as a partner organization. Anita Martinecz Fehér, Deputy Head of Location Promotion at the AWA and member of the CHDU Advisory Board, comments: "A successful company succession offers the opportunity to build on established values and develop them further: Entirely in the sense of 'Future has origins'. The Standortförderung very much welcomes the fact that the CHDU does networking work, prepares data and works towards helping more business successions to succeed and to raise awareness of the essential decisions among the parties involved.

Source and further information: www.chdu.ch