SME & Succession
Planning Consulting
Our consulting services combine practical business experience with sound organizational development. We support entrepreneurs, executives, and teams in sustainably managing change, adapting structures and processes, and planning succession—with both heart and mind.
Focus on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME)
Small and medium-sized businesses operate differently. With our SME & Succession Planning Consulting service, we’re expanding cormens to include a consulting offering rooted in real-world experience. For companies where tradition and the future are balanced every day. This is how we provide guidance in uncertain times and channel our expertise exactly where it makes a difference.
Sebastian Koeppel brings the skills of an entrepreneur to the table: 17 years as a managing partner in the fourth generation of his family’s business, with experience in restructuring, strategic realignment, and transformation. He combines this knowledge with in-depth expertise in systemic consulting, coaching, and mediation.
For medium-sized and family-owned businesses, this means clear communication and pragmatic support right where decisions are made. We understand the perspectives of entrepreneurial families, shareholders, and companies, and we bridge the gap between them so that the essentials become clear and viable steps can be taken.
We combine entrepreneurial experience in the small and medium-sized business sector with cormens’ expertise—to create solutions that are economically viable, sustainable, and culturally compatible.
Succession
Succession is more than just a change in leadership. It involves three closely intertwined systems: the family, with its relationships and emotions; the group of shareholders, with its interests and expectations; and the company, with its challenges. For this transition to succeed, a deep understanding of the different dynamics of these systems is required, along with the ability to mediate between them.
We support entrepreneurial families in thoughtfully shaping the transition. It’s about letting go and embracing the new, handing over and accepting responsibility, strengthening communication, and clarifying structures. Succession means honoring the past and shaping the future—with respect for what has been and openness to what is to come.
Our work combines business acumen, systemic consulting, and personal experience. We create spaces where emotions can be expressed, decisions can mature, and trust can develop. In this way, succession becomes not just a transition, but an opportunity for the shared growth of the family, the family business, and the company.
Mediation
Conflicts are inevitable and often a sign of a vibrant working relationship. The situation becomes critical when conflicts escalate, communication breaks down, and the working relationship suffers. Mediation offers a structured way to resume dialogue and foster understanding.
Mediation is a clearly structured process in which the parties to a conflict work independently to reach agreements with the support of a neutral, impartial, and non-partisan third party. In a safe environment, participants first express their perspectives, feelings, and interests. Afterward, issues and needs are clarified, joint options are developed, and, where appropriate, agreements are reached.
As mediators, we do not make decisions; rather, we facilitate the process with empathy, structure, and an understanding of psychological processes as well as the dynamics within organizations and teams. Our work is grounded in an approach based on nonviolent communication, mindfulness, and respect.
Mediation can lead to an agreement or to a respectful resolution that makes separation possible. What matters is not only the outcome, but also the process: that people reconnect, are heard, and build a relationship. Only then can lasting change occur for everyone involved.
1. Preliminary phase: Non-binding introductory meetings with all parties to the conflict and acceptance of the assignment
2. Conflict analysis and planning of next steps
3. Conflict resolution: Building the participants’ capacity for dialogue and conflict management through separate and joint discussions and the development of joint solutions
- Independence, neutrality, and impartiality
- Structured and method-based process management without independent decision-making authority
- Qualification through training and continuing education
- Confidentiality and integrity
- Voluntary participation and free choice of mediator
- Personal responsibility in conflict management and problem-solving
- Right to terminate at any time
We believe that people have great potential to achieve extraordinary things, whether on their own or in groups.”
About Sebastian
Managing Director of cormens SME and Succession Planning Consulting
Sebastian understands the reality of corporate responsibility from his own experience. For many years, he led the long-established family business beckers bester as a fourth-generation leader—guiding it through restructuring, realignment, and growth. This period had a lasting impact on his understanding of leadership, change, and collaboration. Economic crises, strategic turning points, and personal learning experiences led him to the conviction that organizations are strongest when people share responsibility, communicate openly, and trust one another.
Today, Sebastian supports entrepreneurial families and leadership teams through succession and development processes. His work combines practical experience with in-depth systemic, mediative, and organizational knowledge. The focus is not on a ready-made solution, but on reaching a shared understanding: How do structures, dynamics, and conflicts arise—and how can they be shaped in a way that makes change possible? This transforms consulting into genuine support—effective and human.
Consulting
Structures and relationships as prerequisites for success in business.