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ARTICLE · 27 JANUARY 2026

Why Succession Cannot Be Left To Chance

Buckles Law
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Few decisions test a family business quite like succession.

United KingdomFamily and Matrimonial
Sara-Rose Whitehead
Sara-Rose Whitehead
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Few decisions test a family business quite like succession. Passing leadership to the next generation, or deciding that the time has come to bring in an outsider, is never just about appointing a chief executive. It is about trust, identity and continuity. The future of the enterprise and the family's reputation depends on getting the call right.

Recent figures published by the 25×25 initiative, and reported in the Financial Times, highlight just how fraught the issue has become. More than half of FTSE 100 and 250 companies appointed an outsider as chief executive last year. In the FTSE 250, that number jumped to 62 per cent – a far higher reliance on external hires than in Germany or the United States. The pattern reflects a weakness in succession planning. Put bluntly, too few boards are preparing people from within, so when change comes, they have little choice but to look elsewhere.

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