European Project on Business Succession starts
08.04.2005 - According to the European Commission in the Old Member States between 25 - 40% of all SMEs will be transferred in the next ten years. This is an average of 610.000 enterprises providing 2,4 million jobs each year. An increasing number of family owned businesses will be transferred to non family third parties. The NBG project brings together six partners (Baden-Wuerttemberg, D; Lombardy, I; Lower Austria, A; Thessaly, GR; West-Midlands, UK; Zurich, CH) who are particularly affected by this situation. Smoothing the path for successful business succession is crucial not only for their regional economy but also for social conditions and future regional development. In this context the Next Business Generation (NBG) project aims to exchange experience about support of business transfers, to identify good practice, to develop new support schemes, to establish a continuing co-operation and set up an exchange platform among the participating regions.
The partner regions within the NBG project consider the INTERREG III C programme an opportunity to create new solutions and modifying those to fit their regional situation.
The project follows a two level approach. The first level will consist of a cycle of events (conferences, expert meetings, study tours) in all participating regions. The events will involve experts and case studies from different regions and allows sharing foreign experience among all relevant actors in each region. In total 20 regional events attracting approximately 1.600 participants will be carried out. The second level consists of a benchmarking process which builds up on the knowledge gained in the events and aims at developing critical success factors and identifying good practice. About 20 selected good practise examples will be described in case studies. Finally the partners will develop implementation plans which will enable them to set-up activities they got to know during the NBG project.
The two-level approach is best to include a great number of decision makers and experts from each region and to exchange experience between regions and develop new innovative solutions. The two level approach of NBG project will guarantee added value and increase knowledge about business transfers and how to support them and enhance the public debate about the challenges of safeguarding business transfers. It will create new support schemes, a permanent network of regions and in medium term result in further joint trans-national projects. In the long run the NBG project will lead to an increased awareness for business transfer issues among company owners and business starters and thus contribute to increasing the number of businesses successfully transferred to the next generation, to the preservation of existing jobs and the creation of new ones.
