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Planning for change

The beginning of 2025 marks the end of an era for ACEVO partner and leading sector consultancy firm Action Planning. After 34 years at the helm, founder David Saint will hand over the business to his colleague Sean Tully. David will then take his place among Action Planning’s 120+ specialist associate consultants and carry out selected consultancy assignments as he segues into retirement. Meanwhile, Sean will ensure that Action Planning continues to deliver consultancy support that is professional yet approachable, honest and pragmatic.

In this season of change, the team wanted to take this moment to share some reflections on the business transition with ACEVO members – as well as a very special offer to get its new era off to a flying start.

What did we do and what did we learn?

As a private company, Action Planning is, of course, different in many ways from charities, but it may be helpful nonetheless to share the following generic insights about transition and succession planning – especially where a founder is involved.

Start early

David has been conscious of the need for an exit strategy for the last 15 years at least. This lengthy gestation period gave him time to explore and take advice on a range of different models and scenarios, but none quite fitted the bill.

It is hard to draw a clear ‘lesson’ from what happened next, other than that starting early allowed time for the ideal solution to evolve. David reached a point in which family circumstances made ‘semi-retirement’ both possible and desirable and Sean emerged as the obvious successor. He had been a member of the Action Planning team for about eight years and was the right person, in the right place, at the right time.

The original target date was December 2025 – a definite deadline, but sufficiently far off to feel not too daunting – but as we started to get into the practicalities and realities, December 2025 seemed a very long way off. So we brought the date forward to December 2024, which felt really good for both parties.

Communicate regularly

Change always causes uncertainty, so effective communication is crucial. There were some important groups of stakeholders to bring on the journey with us.

  1. The core team – the group of 8 colleagues (including Sean) who help David run the business. They had to be the first to know and, happily, they warmly welcomed the news.
  2. Our associates community – One of Action Planning’s huge strengths is its community of over 120 Associate Consultants, underpinning our slightly tongue-in-cheek motto of “The answer’s yes – what’s the question?” So it was really important to ensure that they were not ‘spooked’ by the news of the planned change. The announcement was made in person at our March Associates’ Awayday, and then by email the next day to all who were unable to attend. Again, happily, the news was greeted with strong approval.
  3. Our clients – Over the years David has built strong relationships with so many people in the sector, and there was always a danger that clients might also be ‘spooked’ by his departure. Four factors have counteracted that danger. First, more and more of our projects have been led and delivered by members of the Associates Community, so the business has become much less dependent on David alone. Second, we have been deliberately making Sean more visible within the business, so he is already a known quantity to many of our clients. Third, we communicated early and transparently to our clients by individual email, setting out the transition programme. Fourth, the fact that David is continuing to work on selected projects and support the business as necessary provides a further assurance of continuity.
  4. Our partners – Action Planning is proud to be a Corporate Partner of ACEVO and a number of other sector organisations. Again it was important that they were informed directly and personally and in good time, rather than hearing about it second or third hand. So they too were contacted by personal email, with an offer of conversations with David and/or Sean as necessary.
  5. The wider sector – We used our own platforms (e-newsletter, LinkedIn etc) to make the announcement more widely, and informed the sector press.

Practicalities

Even though the change of ownership has been designed to be as smooth as possible, and even though Sean doesn’t plan to make any big changes in the short term at least, there have been a number of practical matters to address. These included:

  • Formalising a legal agreement between David and Sean. Action Planning Associate David Kirby, a solicitor, acted for both David and Sean to prepare this – extremely cost effectively!
  • Informing Companies House of the change of ownership and Directors
  • Informing suppliers (eg insurers etc)
  • Getting Sean set up as a bank account signatory, and David off the mandate
  • Changing contact details across our electronic and printed materials

Letting go!

‘Founder Syndrome’ is a well-known phenomenon in the charity sector. Successful founders of charities are usually confident, determined, resourceful, passionate, single-minded, stubborn… you get the picture! The very qualities that enable them to get something off the ground makes it really hard for them to let go when the time comes.

The same syndrome applies in business. People have sometimes commented that “Action Planning is David Saint”, which is why we have been working hard to make that less and less the case. What will be interesting for David to discover in the coming months is the extent to which “David Saint is Action Planning”, so he has been developing a very clear plan for what he will be doing in the half of his semi-retirement that isn’t client work.

Over the past year, as handover day has drawn closer and closer, and more and more of the decisions have been going to affect Sean’s tenure far more than David’s, Sean has stepped further and further forward and David has stepped further and further back, often (rather too gleefully) exclaiming, “Not my problem…!”

What might we have done differently?

To be honest, nothing comes to mind. Thus far it has been pretty plain sailing, and it may be that we only find the things that we wish we had done differently after the handover. If we do, we will be sure to let you know.

Special offer

As a reward for having read this far, and to mark Action Planning coming under new management, we are making a very special offer.

Put simply, for every five days of consultancy that a charity books and pays for before 31 March 2025 we will provide another day of consultancy free of charge.

Put a little less simply, the following terms will apply:

  • This offer only applies to new projects, or new extensions to existing projects
  • Days booked can be accumulated (for example, 3 days for one project in January, plus 2 days for another project in February, would qualify for the additional free day)
  • The free day can be used in any way: as an extension of the existing project, as a stand-alone project, or as a credit against the next project. The free day does not have to be used by March 31st.
  • The client can choose what the free day is for. Action Planning will deploy the consultant most appropriate to deliver that service, which may or may not be the same consultant who caried out the previous work.
  • In the event that the client wants to use their free day for work that is normally charged out at a higher day rate than the work they purchased to qualify for this offer, the client may be asked to pay the difference between the two rates. Action Planning will be completely transparent about this, enabling the client to make an informed choice.
  • To register to participate (without obligation), email sarah.divina@actionplanning.co.uk quoting code “Succession ACEVO 2025”

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