Company Founders Often Set Unrealistic Goals for New Managers, Says Executive Recruiter

Founders of family and privately-owned businesses frequently place unrealistic expectations on incoming managers, expecting them to achieve in six months what the founders themselves could not accomplish in twenty years, according to a senior executive at Kienbaum, a European personnel consulting and executive search firm. Jan Nezkusil, who heads the Czech branch of the company, says the mismatch between owner expectations and managerial reality is one of the most common challenges in Central European business succession. He advises that ownership transitions and the handover of management responsibilities should ideally be planned several years in advance to allow for a gradual transfer of authority and the building of trust between the founder and the incoming executive. Nezkusil also addresses how to properly structure the professional relationship between a business owner and a hired manager to avoid conflicts, and discusses trends in executive compensation in the Czech and Slovak markets.