“During more than 35 years as a growth and exit planning attorney, I have advised hundreds of privately held business owners on mergers and acquisitions, ownership transitions, family business succession, ESOP transactions, corporate governance, and strategic exit planning. As a Partner at Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Chair of the firm's National Growth and Exit Planning Group, Chair of the ESOP Transaction Services Group, and a Certified Exit Planner (CExP), I have been privileged to work with entrepreneurs, family-owned companies, management teams, boards of directors, and shareholders facing some of the most consequential decisions of their business careers.
Over those three and a half decades, I have learned an important lesson: the technical aspects of a business transition are rarely the primary reason a succession succeeds or fails. Lawyers can draft documents, accountants can address tax issues, valuation professionals can determine value, and investment bankers can facilitate transactions. Yet despite the availability of these resources, a significant percentage of businesses fail to successfully transition to the next generation of owners and leaders. The reason is simple. Most business transition challenges are ultimately people challenges, leadership challenges, governance challenges, communication challenges, and execution challenges.
That reality is what makes Bradley J. Franc's Certified Succession Solution Advisor Program so valuable and so different.
Unlike many succession or exit planning frameworks that focus primarily on ownership transfer or liquidity events, The Succession Solution recognizes that true succession planning encompasses three distinct but interconnected transfers: the transfer of knowledge, the transfer of management and leadership responsibility, and the transfer of ownership itself. This broader perspective reflects the realities I have witnessed throughout my career advising privately held businesses. Ownership can be transferred in a moment. Leadership capability, institutional knowledge, trust, and organizational culture cannot. Those elements require planning, development, communication, and accountability over time.
I am particularly impressed by Brad's emphasis on the human dimensions of succession planning. The research highlighted within the program confirms what many experienced advisors have observed for years: succession failures overwhelmingly result from inadequate communication, lack of trust, insufficient successor preparation, and poor stakeholder alignment rather than technical planning deficiencies. The program does not ignore legal, tax, financial, or valuation considerations, but appropriately places them within the larger context of business continuity and organizational sustainability.
Another significant strength of the program is its framework for understanding the four distinct communities that exist within every closely held business: ownership, governance, management, and employment. In my experience, many succession efforts fail because owners view the business through only one lens, typically ownership, while overlooking the interests, responsibilities, and relationships associated with the other communities. Brad's methodology provides advisors with a disciplined process for evaluating how succession decisions affect each group and for creating alignment among them. This is a sophisticated concept that many business owners have never formally considered, yet it is often essential to achieving a successful transition.
The program also differentiates itself through its unwavering focus on implementation. Far too many strategic planning initiatives conclude with a report, a binder, or a set of recommendations that are never executed. Brad's process moves beyond planning and into accountability by establishing annual milestones, quarterly priorities, assigned champions, measurable outcomes, and recurring review sessions. This structure helps transform succession planning from an abstract discussion into an ongoing management process. As someone who has spent decades helping clients execute complex transactions and ownership transitions, I can attest that execution discipline is often the single greatest determinant of ultimate success.
Equally important, The Succession Solution provides advisors with a repeatable methodology that can be utilized across industries and ownership structures. Whether the eventual transition involves family succession, a management buyout, an ESOP transaction, a third-party sale, or some combination thereof, the underlying principles of leadership development, stakeholder engagement, governance, communication, and accountability remain remarkably consistent. Brad has created a framework that allows advisors to facilitate these critical discussions in a structured and productive manner.
From a professional development perspective, the Certified Succession Solution Advisor Program fills a meaningful gap within the advisory marketplace. Technical expertise alone no longer differentiates advisors. The most trusted advisors are those who can facilitate difficult conversations, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, build consensus among stakeholders, and help clients move from intention to execution. This program equips advisors with those capabilities while providing a practical roadmap for guiding business owners through one of the most important journeys they will ever undertake.
For attorneys, CPAs, wealth advisors, valuation professionals, consultants, business coaches, and other trusted advisors serving privately held companies, I believe the Certified Succession Solution Advisor Program offers a highly valuable and differentiated skill set. More importantly, it provides a proven framework for helping business owners preserve enterprise value, develop future leadership, strengthen governance, mitigate transition risk, and improve the likelihood that their businesses will successfully endure for future generations.
I enthusiastically endorse Bradley J. Franc, The Succession Coach, and the Certified Succession Solution Advisor Program. Brad has developed a thoughtful, comprehensive, and highly practical methodology that addresses the realities of business succession in a way that few programs do. Advisors who complete this certification will gain not only knowledge, but also a disciplined process that can materially improve outcomes for their clients, strengthen their advisory practices, and help more closely held businesses successfully navigate the transition from one generation of leadership and ownership to the next.”
James R. Carlisle II
Partner, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP
Chair, National Growth and Exit Planning Group
Chair, ESOP Transaction Services Group
Certified Exit Planner (CExP)
Growth & Exit Planning Attorney