Failure to plan succession often the downfall of a successful business, says local businessman

Failure to plan succession often the downfall of a successful business, says local businessman
Mario Carey.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A lack of succession planning, developing a strategy for identifying and developing future leaders for a company to ensure that a business can continue when its founders are no longer there, is all too often the cause of a business’ failure, a local businessman suggested.

Real estate legend Mario Carey, a man who has handled nearly $3 billion in transactions over a
35-year career and heads three companies, has seen the impact first-hand on properties that become vacant or are suddenly listed for sale at below market value.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “It’s especially apparent in smaller economies like The Bahamas where the first generation of a family works really hard, builds a business, establishes other branches or locations, and perhaps the second generation takes over but with slightly less ambition than the original owner.

“By the third generation, family members have moved on. They are no longer interested. But the last owners did not plan effectively for what would happen if they wanted to retire or if they were suddenly unable to continue working.

“So, all those years of hard work and long hours and reinvesting in a business are just left out there, with no future unless someone comes along miraculously to save it.”

Carey believes that the search for a CEO should start five years before the current CEO expects to resign by choice or contractually.

“While the problem is nearly universal throughout Western civilization,” Carey said, “it is particularly bad in The Bahamas. We are inevitably poor planners just as we are poor savers.

“We still lack a national development plan and, in business, we tend to have a more laid-back approach to the future. Too many are absorbed by meeting daily deadlines, logging billable hours or satisfying immediate demands instead of taking the time to plan for continuity.”

Carey, founder of Better Homes and Gardens MCR Group, and, more recently, Mario Carey Ventures (MCV), compared the refusal to plan to the reluctance to create a will.

“Denying is not defying,” said Carey. “Preparing a will does not invite an early death. It just means less fighting among siblings or other interested parties when you do pass away.

“Having a succession plan does not make you irrelevant. It means you can be at ease knowing that the business you built will continue as you enjoy the next phase of your life.”

Carey has followed his own advice. In the past two years, he has taken on two younger partners, both of whom met the standards he believed would take the Better Homes and Gardens flag to new levels through intensive social media marketing and personal client relationships.

“There is no need to hang on to something because it was once your baby,” he said. “Businesses grow up, just like children. They take on a life of their own which can continue to be success stories so long as the right management is in place.”

He said all it takes is planning and execution — expertise he now provides to others through MCV.

“It’s overcoming your fear of letting go and adopting an excitement about exploring the next chapter of life while enjoying the knowledge that the sign on the door will continue to say ‘Open for Business.’”