Blog
The first external CEO: more than a change at the top
Date
24 Sep 2026
Author
Redacteur
Eight in ten CEOs of family businesses say their organisation was not truly ready for the arrival of a first external CEO.
This is the finding of research by Schelstraete Delacourt into the transition from family to external leadership in Belgian companies.
For family businesses, the challenge therefore lies not only in selecting the right external CEO, but at least as much in preparing for the transition. “The better the new CEO is onboarded, the more clearly roles between family and management are agreed, and the better prepared the family itself is for the new situation, the greater the likelihood that the transition will genuinely succeed. It is precisely at this intersection that Schelstraete Delacourt also positions itself as a facilitator,” say Isabel De Buck and Jonas Soenens of Schelstraete Delacourt.
An external CEO at the helm of a family business is not an obvious choice. Why does a family business eventually decide to take that step?
Isabel De Buck: “There is rarely a single reason. More often, it is a combination of factors. A family business can reach a point where it wants to professionalise further, accelerate growth or organise its governance differently. Think of internationalisation, scaling up, or the need to make faster and more data-driven decisions. At that point, the question of what type of leadership is required also changes.
Family succession can also play a role. Sometimes there is simply no family member available or suitable to take over the leadership. In other cases, family shareholders want to prepare a generational transition in good time and safeguard the continuity of the business. An external CEO can then help to create a clearer separation between family and management, while also bringing in new expertise.
What all these situations have in common is that the CEO role changes fundamentally. The external leader is often expected to professionalise processes and reporting, sharpen accountabilities, build a stronger management team, execute the strategy and drive greater performance and accountability across the organisation. The decision to appoint an external CEO for the first time is therefore rarely just a question of replacement. It is usually the result of a broader transition within the family business.”
Yet bringing in an external CEO rarely proves to be a simple step. Your research shows that no fewer than eight in ten family business CEOs surveyed say, in hindsight, that the organisation was not truly ready for that change. Why is that?
Jonas Soenens: “Because the arrival of an external CEO changes far more than just the person at the top. Such a move affects informal structures, decision-making and trust within the family. That is often exactly what gets underestimated. Many family businesses have operated for years on the basis of implicit agreements, short lines of communication and an unspoken balance within the family.
As soon as an external CEO joins, roles, mandates, processes and governance suddenly need to be made far more explicit. That also explains why 80% of the CEOs surveyed say the organisation was not ready for an external CEO at the outset. The success of such a transition therefore depends not only on whether you have found the right person, but at least as much on whether the organisational context is ready to enable that person to succeed.
The success of such a transition therefore depends not only on whether you have found the right person, but at least as much on whether the organisational context is ready to enable that person to succeed.
Yet there is no need to fear an external leader. The arrival of an external CEO by no means has to mean that the family loses control or that the company’s distinctive identity disappears. On the contrary: if roles and expectations are properly clarified upfront, such a CEO can actually help to secure continuity, accelerate professionalisation and carry family values sustainably into the next phase.”
That initial reluctance often appears, in hindsight, to have been greater than necessary. Where exactly does the added value of appointing an external CEO lie?
Isabel: “To begin with, an external CEO brings a fresh perspective. Someone who has not grown up with the existing way of working is quicker to challenge assumptions, brings in new perspectives and sometimes spots growth opportunities that are less readily noticed internally. In addition, such a person often brings experience from other, sometimes larger or more complex organisations. As a result, particularly in mid-sized SMEs, new ways of working and best practices are introduced and professionalisation can accelerate.
A third element is independence. An external CEO is less bound by family history and internal relationships, and can therefore take certain decisions more objectively, set sharper priorities and make tough calls more quickly. At the same time, that person can become a neutral link between family, management and other stakeholders. Difficult topics are sometimes easier to discuss when someone is not part of the family dynamic. The paradox is therefore an interesting one: beforehand, there is often a fear of what an outsider will change, whereas afterwards that very distance turns out to be one of their greatest strengths.”
Difficult topics are sometimes easier to discuss when someone is not part of the family dynamic. The paradox is therefore an interesting one: beforehand, there is often a fear of what an outsider will change, whereas afterwards that very distance turns out to be one of their greatest strengths.
Still, there are cases where the arrival of an external CEO does not quite go as expected and the transition partly derails. How do you explain that?
Jonas: “We see three recurring causes. The first is a lack of structured onboarding. Strikingly, the majority of external CEOs in family businesses start without a genuinely structured onboarding programme. Sixty percent even say they received no onboarding at all. Only a minority were given clear expectations, a handover plan is the exception, and a mentor or family coach is entirely absent.
The second cause is a lack of clarity about the role itself. Only 40% say there was a clear CEO role profile upfront. For 30%, it was only partly clear, and for another 30% it was not clear at all. There is also regularly a lack of clarity about the strategic direction of the family shareholders: for half of the respondents, it was not clear. In effect, you are asking someone to take on responsibility without it being fully clear upfront what the mandate actually entails.
And third, too little account is taken of family members who remain active in the business after the external CEO arrives. In more than 90% of cases, family members are operationally involved. That need not be a problem in itself, but it does require exceptionally clear boundaries between family, governance and management. In practice, that is precisely where we often see friction arise: informal decision-making alongside the formal structures, uncertainty about who ultimately decides, or agreements on roles that gradually shift again over time.”
To avoid these pitfalls, far more explicit agreements need to be made before the external CEO arrives. How do you support such a process in practice?
Isabel: “We do not deal with the financial side of such a process; our focus is on the organisation, the people and the culture. We start with the organisation itself. What does the next growth phase require? Where are the strengths and gaps in the management team today? In a first phase, we therefore map the organisation and its people in detail, through in-depth interviews with key individuals and an assessment of the core team. We then translate this into the leadership requirements for the next phase: which success factors will be critical, and what CEO profile fits those requirements?
Next, we develop several scenarios. For example, we benchmark based on our experience: how have other companies approached a similar transition? We also look internally: what should the organisational model look like? And how do family, management and governance relate to one another? Only then do we move to a concrete roadmap with timing, priorities and clear next steps. This objective approach does more than support better decision-making. In a recent case involving a family business in the cleaning industry, such a roadmap helped to clarify future choices and timing, but also to defuse a number of latent conflicts. The goal, then, is not simply to find an external CEO. It is to prepare the organisation, the family and the future CEO in such a way that the transition can genuinely succeed.”
