Kerstin Khadri sees the Next Generation Award as recognition of her hard work, but also as a source of encouragement for other women. In 2010—as a former employee—she took over a Geilenkirchen-based company that manufactures large umbrellas and windbreaks, and for this achievement, she was honored last year by the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs with the award for External Business Successor of the Year.
Khadri is one of far too few. Many small and medium-sized business owners are planning to retire in the coming years or want to sell their businesses for other reasons. Successors are urgently needed. Women still play far too small a role as potential candidates in this context. Even in family-internal succession, daughters are given less consideration. As a result, valuable leadership potential is being squandered.
Women Have Ground to Make Up in Business Start-ups
The Federal Ministry of Economics also laments that the potential for women entrepreneurs in Germany is far from being fully realized—even though the necessary education and training are certainly available. About half of all college graduates are women. However, the self-employment rate among women is only about half that of men. The FRAUEN unternehmen initiative aims to bring about improvement in this area.
While women’s participation in business start-ups initially rose along with their labor force participation—which has been increasing for years—it has declined again in recent years and remains significantly lower than that of men. This is even more pronounced when it comes to full-time business start-ups. According to the 2018 KfW Startup Monitor, the share of startups founded by women most recently stood at 37 percent; for full-time startups, it has dropped to 29 percent.
Company Seeks Female Successor: Click here for listings
The state-funded nationwide agency for female entrepreneurs (bga) estimates that women account for only 13 to 22 percent of business takeovers. Once a year, on June 21, it therefore hosts the National Day of Action for Business Succession by Women—an important event following today’s International Women’s Day.
