Preparing a family member to run daily operations

Succession conversations in family firms often start with shares and end with spreadsheets. Daily operations sit in the middle — unglamorous, essential, and rarely written down.

Shadow weeks beat policy manuals

Ask the successor to carry a notebook for two weeks. Each page: time, what happened, who they called, what they could not answer. That notebook becomes the table of contents for procedures worth documenting.

Separate “must ask parent” from “decide alone”

Owners underestimate how many micro-decisions they make. The successor needs a green list (reorder staples below NT$5,000) and a red list (new supplier, wage changes). Grey areas shrink over time if you review the lists monthly.

Introduce them before you leave the room

Suppliers and long-time customers should hear the owner’s voice transferring trust — a short call or visit, not a surprise email. Staff take cues from those relationships.

Accept a messy middle quarter

Handovers wobble. Schedule a weekly debrief for ninety days: what broke, what documentation was missing, what to adjust. Treat it as maintenance, not failure.

Preparation is less about finding the perfect successor moment and more about making ordinary Tuesdays survivable without you.