Most owners of construction companies spend their time working in the business rather than working on their business, said FMI\u2019s Rusty Sherwood during last month\u2019s ASCC Concrete Executive Leadership Forum. The result is that when the time comes that the owner wants to get out of the business, there\u2019s no one to take over leadership and no apparent buyers. <\/p>
Sherwood described three alternatives for getting out: liquidate, sell to a third party, or sell internally. From the audience, Peter Emmons, Structural Group, noted that most construction companies only get a small markup from liquidation value when the sell so there\u2019s no real reason to be concerned about the ultimate value of the business\u2014they make their money now and don\u2019t expect a payday at the end.<\/p>
But if you want your company to survive your exit, creating a leadership succession plan is essential and it can\u2019t happen overnight. Sherwood insists that most owners consistently underestimate the time required: 5 to 10 years. And the plan has to delve deeper than just the top spot\u2014it should extend down three levels. Steve Crawford, Superior Gunite, taking a military slant, noted that most construction companies have generals and sergeants but not a lot of majors and captains. Developing mid-level leaders is essential to success.<\/p>
So if you want your business to succeed without you, build you plan well ahead and take action to develop your future leadership team that can be ready to take charge when the time comes. Sherwood concluded with a Japanese proverb: Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most owners of construction companies spend their time working in the business rather than working on their business, said FMI\u2019s Rusty Sherwood during last month\u2019s ASCC Concrete Executive Leadership Forum. The result is that when the time comes that the owner wants to get out of the business, there\u2019s no one to take over leadership […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":80209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"scheduledNewsletterDates":[],"_scheduled_newsletter_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"zonda_content_type_url_append":"_o","zonda_dfp_zone":"","zonda_exclude_recommended_contents":false,"zonda_exclude_most_popular":false,"zonda_exclude_tagged_results":false,"zonda_eyebrow":"Bill's Blog","zonda_last_newsletter_date":"2099-12-31T23:59:59.999-05:00","zonda_original_url":"","zonda_pdf_version":0,"zonda_print_headline":"","zonda_promo_abstract":"","zonda_promo_headline":"","zonda_promo_image":0,"zonda_subheadline":"Developing a succession plan takes longer than you think."},"tags":[],"news_item_type":[393],"section_10":[15327],"subject":[29],"organization":[],"award":[],"person":[],"product_type_10":[],"content-group":[],"event":[90736],"location":[],"state":[],"brand":[],"jlc-category":[],"year_tax":[],"sponsor":[],"coauthors":[68367],"class_list":["post-80207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_item_type-opinion","section_10-business","subject-management","event-asccs-concrete-executive-leadership-forum"],"yoast_head":"\n