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After the takeover of your company, everything initially remains largely unchanged: Most of the time, our holdings are quite successful before the takeover - and that's why we like to watch the team on site for a few months and get to know the business better. Gradually, opportunities arise to contribute our own input. After 1 - 2 years, the following 3 areas in particular have changed as a result of our investment and succession planning:
Our collaboration is primarily based on the following four building blocks:
Companies in the FORUM holding group do some things differently: They are more goal-oriented, measure themselves more against the competition, spend much more time on personnel marketing and personnel development and have well-structured sales processes. We have documented these and a whole range of other principles in a manual for our managers. It contains suggestions for further training with which you can deepen topics of interest.
We meet with the managing directors of our holdings once a year for a two-day conference to discuss and deepen the principles of good corporate governance. Now that the software group has grown to 12 holdings, there is also an opportunity to exchange experiences with the principles in this industry. These conferences are supplemented by webinars in which individual companies or FORUM present a contribution to best practice, lasting 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
In the review meetings, our managing director Burkhard Wittek meets with each holding 3 - 4 times a year to discuss company-specific topics. The agenda is jointly determined at least two weeks in advance so that the facts and figures for the upcoming decisions can be well prepared and made available in advance. Only topics of medium- and long-term importance are on the agenda, e.g. personnel development or large projects. We like to invite other managers to the review meetings. Depending on the quality of the preparation (and the discussion culture in the company), they last 3 - 7 hours.
Senior Advisors are former entrepreneurs or CEOs who have withdrawn from their companies but still enjoy passing on their experience to younger colleagues. A Senior Advisor supports 1 - 2 FORUM investments. They spend 4 – 10 days per year with the family businesses.
The distribution of roles is clear: Responsibility remains undivided with the company, the Senior Advisor must take a back seat in the role of coach or sparring partner. We definitely don't want a "middle management".
"With the transfer of our company to FORUM Family Office, we are taking a step that secures the continuity and reliability of the GEDAT Group, as our proven corporate philosophy is continued by FORUM. At the same time, FORUM is setting the course for healthy growth and technologically innovative progress."