Make It Easy on Yourself

Abstract

Because the preparations for letting go can take as much as a decade or more, CEOs are well advised to get started when they are still in their 40s. Charles Collat, the second-generation leader of Mayer Electric Supply Inc., in Birmingham, Alabama, had begun thinking about letting go but didn’t engage in the process in earnest until he was 60, when he called in a family business consultant to help. Still, it took a decade to effect a successful transition, and Collat was 70 when he finally retired.