The owner is the determining factor

Different factors explain the success of small and large enterprises. According to studies, the company’s management is the most important factor for an SME. A large enterprise, in turn, has access to wider markets for management recruitment and, for instance, the option of transferring operations from one country to another to gain cost benefits. In consequence, for a large enterprise, the single factor having the highest correlation with the company’s success is simply its line of business.

Since we at Finnvera have the opportunity to follow the stories of thousands of different enterprises and to observe the cause and effect relationships contributing to a company’s success – or sometimes, sad to say, its failure – I would claim that the owner is even more important for an SME than the management. Of course, these two are often the same person. But even when they aren’t, the owner has more direct influence over management selection and may intervene in the company’s day-to-day operations more than the owners of large corporations do.

A good or a bad owner can be critical even for a large corporation – an example might be the revival of the Turku shipyard after its Korean owner was replaced by a German owner – but for an SME, the owner almost always has an absolutely pivotal role in the development and success of the Enterprise.

Finnvera provides financing for over a thousand transfers of ownership each year. Statistics on the age structure of entrepreneurs reveal that the need for transfers of business to the next generation, and for business acquisitions, will continue at an exceptionally high level even for the next ten years. Surveys indicate that the principal bottlenecks are the matching of suitable buyers and sellers, accurate value determination and issues pertaining to taxation and law. Financing follows next.

Together with enterprise organisations, Finnvera works actively to help eliminate all these bottlenecks. Throughout the country, we organise numerous events where buyers, sellers, experts in various fields and financiers can meet each other. Our goal is to ensure that as many enterprises as possible, after having been brought by their current owners along their own unique paths to this point in time, will find a good new owner who has the resources and the desire to continue in the future to the next success story!

Pauli Heikkilä

CEO

Read more about Finnvera's financing for transfers of ownership.