The situation
At first, it felt like the direction of travel was already agreed.
The family were clear that the future of the business would sit with the rising generation, and that had been understood for some time, but there was a growing sense that the business needed something more experienced in the immediate term.
It wasn’t being framed as a change in plan, more a question of timing. The next generation would step in eventually, but not yet, and in the meantime the idea of bringing in an external CEO had started to take shape.
On the surface, it sounded straightforward enough.
But once you got into it, there was less clarity around how that would actually work, how long that arrangement might last, and what it meant in practice for those coming through.
What wasn’t obvious
What sat behind it wasn’t just a question of capability or readiness.
It was more a question of how the business balanced what it needed now with what the family wanted for the future, and how those two things could sit alongside each other without creating tension.
There were different views within the family, some more confident than others about timing, and a degree of uncertainty around how the external CEO would relate to the rising generation once in place.
That tends to be where things become less clear, because the role can end up carrying multiple expectations, leading the business, developing the next generation, and holding a place for something that isn’t fully defined yet.
What we focused on
Rather than moving straight to defining the role or beginning a search, we spent time understanding how each part of that picture was being viewed, both in terms of what the business needed and what the family expected over time.
That meant speaking to individuals separately to understand their perspectives on readiness, timing, and the role the external CEO would need to play, as well as how the rising generation saw their own position.
From there, the focus moved to defining the role in a way that reflected that reality, not just in terms of leading the business, but in how it would sit alongside the longer-term plan.
Once that became clearer, the conversation moved away from a broad idea of a “bridge” and towards something more defined, where expectations were understood and could be worked with.
The outcome
The appointment worked because those expectations had been brought into the open.
There was a clearer understanding of what the CEO was there to do, how they would operate within the business, and how they would interact with the rising generation over time.
The impact wasn’t immediate, but it was steadier. The CEO was able to lead without uncertainty around their position, and the rising generation remained part of the picture without feeling displaced.
Over time, the business was able to move forward with a structure that reflected both its immediate needs and its longer-term direction.
The TWYD view
Situations like this are often described as a timing issue, but in practice it’s more about clarity of intent.
The idea of a “bridge” sounds simple, but it can carry very different meanings depending on how people see the future, and those differences don’t resolve themselves once someone is appointed.
In this case, progress came from making those expectations explicit, which allowed the role to be defined with more precision and avoided asking one person to interpret something that hadn’t been agreed.
That tends to be where these situations either work or don’t. Not in the quality of the individual, but in how clearly the role connects the present with what comes next.