Early EO Lessons: Succession, Energy, and the Blueprint for the Future

Allyson Glover, Co-Founder of Happy Business, reflects on the importance of succession planning, the lessons from Blue Flame’s award-winning transition, and why leadership and culture are at the epicentre of long-term success.

Image: 'Transition of the Year' 2024 winner Blue Flame over their native Penryn in Cornwall (credit: Getty Images)

When business owners think about succession, many typically imagine a distant milestone, something to consider when the time feels right, when the energy starts to wane, or when external pressures make it unavoidable. But as Allyson Glover explains: “Nobody ever begins with the end in mind, the end creeps up quite quickly.”

For founders, the reality is stark. Energy levels dip. Relentless crises – including Covid, Brexit, tariffs, and cost-of-living pressures – have provided an almost unending gauntlet to test owners’ fortitude and resilience. And yet, as Allyson emphasises, waiting until exhaustion sets in makes it harder to hand over with the energy and positivity that succession requires. 

Having worked intensively with six EO businesses (EOBs) and at least fifteen other businesses on succession and leadership development in the last two years alone, Allyson knows her stuff. In fact, during her twenty-plus years running a business support organisation, she supported 5,300+ businesses to grow and provided over 27,600 hours of mentoring and coaching.

“Don’t wait until you’re knackered and fed up with your business,” she says. “The passion you’ve had to get it where it is needs to carry across to the new generation of owners.”

This insight lies at the heart of why employee ownership is gaining momentum as a proven succession route. Unlike other options, transitioning to EO provides a means of safeguarding a business’ future, preserving a founder’s legacy, and empowering its people. And nowhere is that clearer than in the story of Blue Flame, winner of the ‘EO Transition of the Year’ at the 2024 UK Employee Ownership Awards.

Preparing to Accelerate Exit

For many owners, traditional succession planning can stretch across half a decade, particularly where family businesses are involved. Employee ownership, however, can move faster once a decision is made. 

“One of the astounding things is the speed at which exit can happen,” says Allyson. “Typically, exit can take between five and six years. But with EO, once the choice is made, the process can be relatively quick. The bigger challenge is the psychological preparation for what lies ahead.”

Leadership Succession

That preparation is where Blue Flame’s story provides a blueprint. For founders Mark Bolitho and Paul Smith, who’d each spent close to four decades building the business, succession was always on the horizon. Long before EO entered the conversation, they’d identified and nurtured potential successors from within.

“When they started exploring the idea of EO, they’d already been developing three or four people in the business,” recalls Glover. “The key to Blue Flame’s success was immersing these future leaders fully in every area of the business.”

The succession process culminated in two directors – Matt Dennison and Grant Doe – stepping into leadership roles. Written down, it’s easy to assume this was a simple overnight transformation. But, in reality, this was a structured and deliberate process rooted in both strategy and coaching to ensure long-term stability and success.

Downloading Founder Knowledge

In one of the most decisive stages of the transition, Allyson facilitated a process that she describes as “downloading Mark and Paul’s brains into Matt and Grant”. Alongside the founders, the new directors engaged in strategic planning to map out the business’ next chapter.

“They came up with a strategic blueprint for the business,” says Allyson. “The number one principle was steady as she goes; don’t do anything drastic in the first year. Building the blocks for the future gave the new directors time to take the reins, and make sure they were supported where they had gaps.”

Those gaps weren’t hidden. Matt and Grant brought complementary strengths, but financial management was a challenge. Coaching, mentoring, and external support helped provide a bridge in a strategic and purposeful process. The result was a smooth transition, with the new directors leading and learning in real time.

Rooting Succession in Culture & Happiness

As with so much of the defining attributes of employee ownership, succession doesn’t end with leadership handover and extends all the way into culture. Blue Flame had long believed it had a strong, positive culture but had little data to back that up. Ahead of the transition, Allyson introduced a psychology-based “happiness survey” to measure staff sentiment.

The results were positive overall, with the business scoring an average score of eight out of ten. But the process also highlighted weaknesses around communication, listening, development, and acknowledgement. These insights provided the foundation for the next stage of Blue Flame’s EO journey.

“The second part of succession is developing the management team to step up,” says Allyson. “If you don’t pay attention to how your people are feeling, you miss what really drives performance. The survey helped managers see what mattered in how they led their teams.”

Twelve months later, as expected, scores dipped slightly amid the uncertainty of change and the aforementioned global and national crises impacting all businesses to one degree or another. But the leadership team responded by creating a ten-point plan through its new EO Council. Over time, the focus has moved away from command-and-control approaches towards coaching and listening. A meaningful shift that embeds and codifies leadership styles suited to employee ownership within the business.

The Challenge of Letting Go

For founders, the emotional weight of succession is often underestimated. Handing over means relinquishing control of a business they’ve often poured time, passion, and energy into for multiple decades. Coaching is a powerful means of helping founders let go and, as Allyson states, to “avoid the temptation to be everything to everyone”.

Clarity of roles, accountability, and support for managers are vital. “Your business has to be healthy,” she says. “You have to engage the team in the excitement, even when finances are tight and the focus is on servicing debt. Without that positive momentum, succession falters.”

But not every transition to employee ownership succeeds. Allyson has seen businesses falter where leadership planning and preparation wasn’t a priority, or the financial health of the business was waning. “The last thing you want is to have to bring the founder back into the business to rescue it or, in the worst case, close it. Classic post-pandemic exhaustion, knee-jerk timing, decisions without a resilient plan to see it through can prove financially and emotionally costly to all.”

The lesson? Employee ownership can’t save a sinking business and succession requires realism, resilience, good timing and the right people in place to be successful.

Different Approaches to Succession

There’s no single proven method of succession where employee ownership is concerned. Every story is unique and worthy of celebrating. In one case, a husband-and-wife founding team initially stayed on after transitioning, but within eighteen months both stepped back. Two senior leaders were appointed joint managing directors, with complementary skills.

“Neither of the new leaders could do it alone at that point,” says Allyson. “But together, they can. In three or four years, one of them could step up. In the meantime, we’re building the management team beneath them and even exploring a graduate management programme to bring in new blood.”

This reflects a broader generational shift. Younger leaders expect more coaching-led approaches and flatter structures. “Leadership approaches have been out of date in many places,” says Allyson. “The younger generation needs a coaching approach rather than being told what to do. It’s a mindset shift. Anyone in the business can have the ideas that solve problems; leaders need to give them permission to have that voice.”

Measuring success: Leadership Above All

So, what defines success in EO succession? For Allyson, it comes down to leadership. Whether that means founders actively supporting the early stages, or recognising when external expertise is needed, leadership is the factor that determines whether a business thrives or dies.

She recalls working with a business where exhausted founders recognised that they couldn’t take the company beyond its plateau. They recruited an external managing director with experience running much larger operations. “It takes a while to make the shift, but when you put proper leadership in place that embraces culture and brings people along, you see fantastic results,” she says.

The key is patience. “For every EO business, year one and two should be steady as you go. Lay those foundations. Train managers to have a progressive style that enables people to have their voice. That’s how you own the future.”

For business owners weighing their options, the message is clear. Start earlier than you think. Nurture future leaders before you need them. Listen to your people. And plan for succession as a process, not an event.

Because, as Allyson reminds us, “Employee ownership is part of succession, it’s the result of your succession plan. And the sooner you start preparing, the stronger your business will be when it’s time to hand over.”