RITAM POSLA Boris Vukić

Guest Boris VukićHosted by Lidija KiseljakMay 3, 2026

Boris Vukić

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Boris Vukić has spent 25 years helping organizations professionalize, moving from entrepreneurial leadership to structured management. But his most challenging work often begins at the intersection of business and biology: the family firm. As an author and partner at Adizes Southeast Europe, Vukić navigates the complex terrain where founders must decide who will take the helm of what they’ve built, and how. It is a decision fraught with emotional weight, conflicting loyalties, and the silent question of whether the next generation even wants the job. This conversation offers a rare look inside the personal struggles behind some of the region's most enduring companies, revealing why succession planning is less about strategy and more about uncomfortable truths.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Vukić describes himself as "a fighter for children's rights lately, for the right of those children to choose what they will do in life." Heirs are not automatically entrepreneurs, and their choice to lead the family business is paramount. The company's future as a family enterprise depends first on the heir's genuine interest, not the founder's expectations.

He observes that only "three to five percent of people in the world are entrepreneurs," and that statistic doesn't change when entrepreneurs have children. Expecting the next generation to lead the business with the same entrepreneurial drive as the founder is unrealistic; their path is more likely to be management, not pioneering, which demands the company be professionalized.

Founders "run away" from seriously approaching succession planning, often delaying the difficult conversations until it's too late. The emotional burden of planning for one's own departure and the division of legacy is so heavy that founders often avoid it, but this delay only compounds future problems for the family and the business.

The core dilemma for founders is "how to do what's best for my company, and at the same time be fair to my children." This tension between ensuring the company's continuity and maintaining family harmony requires difficult, often unpopular decisions that only the founder can make, not the heirs.

Vukić highlights the critical distinction between business partners who "chose each other" and siblings who are "born into" co-ownership. Expecting siblings to navigate complex business decisions and ownership structures as effectively as chosen partners is unfair; founders must establish clear frameworks to prevent conflict among those who did not choose to be business associates.

"A wise man once said, 'It's better for them to curse me one day when I'm gone, unhappy with the decision I make, than for them to curse each other.'" The founder's ultimate responsibility is to make the tough calls on succession and ownership, even if those decisions are unpopular, to safeguard both the business and the long-term relationships of the heirs.

Winning an award for "best entrepreneur" only proves creativity and the ability to inspire followers, but "it says nothing about how seriously you have set up a system." A successful entrepreneurial company needs to transition from reliance on the founder's charisma to a well-structured system of management and operations to ensure its survival beyond the founding generation.

Vukić's consulting method involves "four preparations": for the heir, the company, the founder, and the family. Effective succession is not a single event but a comprehensive process that requires simultaneous, dedicated work on all stakeholders and the business itself, long before the actual transfer of power.

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