EU level and also national statistics reveal the importance of ownership and management transition in companies, mostly in small and medium sized enterprises. In the up-coming 10 years one-third of Europe’s private firms will have to undergo such kind of transfer; this was the conclusion of a report in 2006. This implies that up to 690 000 firms will leave the control of a generation every year. The situation in the Central and Eastern European countries is even aggravated by the fact that the very first generation of entrepreneurs is approaching to retirement age so no previous experiment can be analysed on the transition period. Cross- country and national research provide some comparative and national analysis of the succession phenomenon pointing out difficulties and risks and suggesting possible state interventions. Though there is no homogeneous European strategy to cope with the very complex succession problems, important experience accumulated in the more advanced countries. This can be a good basis for homogenisation among the advanced countries on one side and adaptation and introduction of good practices in the post-socialist countries. The aim of the proposal is, after having carried out exploratory and comparative research in the participating countries, to develop training materials for different target groups such as active owners and managers thinking about transfer of leadership and control in their companies, potential successors in leadership, and finally, mentors for companies where succession may need to be accompanied by scaling up or reorientation of activities. The resulting modules will cover legal, financial, social and cultural aspects of the succession process in the SMEs making differentiation between manufacturing and servicing companies. An Institute from the south of France and Italian experts bring the Mediterranean experience, a British university and Finnish experts will introduce the Western and Nordic practice and a Polish university together with the Hungarian applicant will organise the research and the development of the different curricula. Under Polish lead all the partners and other associations of SMEs will guarantee the national and international dissemination of the results. A final study is expected to address local, regional and national governmental bodies with recommendations how this bodies could intervene by policy measures to help the succession processes. In longer terms the results are expected to be generalised with a larger geographical coverage on the research side (Horizon2020) as well as in training development (Knowledge Alliance).
A lot before the start of the Insist project due to a series of projects focussed on SMEs, Budapest Business School had become one of the main SME-training providers in Hungary. This series encompassed research projects and curriculum development, bilateral and multilateral European proposals. This allowed BBS to compose a reliable and multicolour international partnership as well. During the research activities the partners came across an imposing phenomenon: time was coming soon when the SMEs of the Central and Eastern European countries, where private entrepreneurship started to develop just after the change of the regime, would be confronted the first time with the problems of their generational transition (GT), ownership and governance included. An intensive preparatory research pointed out that it is a major problem in the Western part of Europe though there, massive research activities had been led in this field. So while the experience accumulated in these latter countries seemed to be promising for the Eastern partners, the Westerners found their interest in a joint GT-research, in a common curriculum development and all partners saw the positive long-term homogenisation effect of the trainings. Another innovative approach was declared as an objective by the partners: parallel with the curriculum development aimed at facilitating the smooth GTs of SMEs, a teaching module for the training of SME-mentors was planned. So the objectives of the project were: - an exploratory and comparative research of Generational Transition issues in the participant countries, - based upon the results of this research a curriculum development for SME owners and managers on one side and for future SME-mentors on the other, - embedment of the teaching modules into the curriculum systems of the participating training institutions, - carrying out massive dissemination activities and inviting new partners for more extensive follow-up projects. The well-balanced partnership was composed of three universities (Leeds, Cracow and BBS) having experience in SME-related training development, a France-based international company operating SME-mentor networks for a certain time, a Polish and a Hungarian SME federation and a Brussels based company experienced in Quality Management of EU-projects as non-university partners. The work distribution was conceived according to the partners’ profiles and the following results were achieved: - The preparatory research was carried out by the three universities, a team led by Hungarian experts; the report was assessed and feed-backed by the SME federations. - The teaching module development went on in cooperation of all partners with the following leadership distribution: Leeds led the development of the strategic issues’ module, Cracow the legal and social/cultural issues, BBS the financial themes and the French partner the SME-mentor training module. All the four module developments have been continuously assessed and feed-backed by the non-university partners. - The four training modules, in four languages each, have been piloted under the direction of the non-university partners. The test trainings were carried out with the participation of the foreseen number of entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs. The outcomes of the pilots allowed fine-tuning and finalising the courses. - The courses have been and are being embedded into the regular courses of the training institution partners. For Masters students in entrepreneurship Masters the modules are already going on as regular courses with the total participants’ numbers over 100. - A robust dissemination work package has been carried out. The non-university partners’ multiplier events with the foreseen number of participants were duly organised. - The results of the research and the pilot tests of the courses gave major outcomes as far as further cooperation is concerned. First, partners realised that the flexible mentoring approach is more acceptable and even necessitated by the companies. This gave the idea to elaborate on this issue and devote a proposal to the necessary knowledge, skills and competences of the mentors. A European project, named Trust me had been worked out on that and the already accepted project is going on today. Secondly, the generational transition issue needs to be deepened and also this issue must be extended towards the larger scale subject, the sustainability of the SMEs. These two ideas gave birth to a higher education project with the shorthand Fame, accepted in the HE cooperation strand of the Erasmus+ programme and started this January. The third exploitation idea is even more ambitious: on the basis of the Insist and Trust me courses an international certification of the mentor courses and a brand development process for SME-mentors are planned to be elaborated and, on that basis integrated networks of mentors in different European regions are foreseen in the frames of Interreg cooperation.