Other than Father Time and Mother Nature, the legend of Saint Nicholas is one of the oldest. Records suggest he was born around 270 A.D, but as they didn’t celebrate birthday’s back in the day. Even the big guy can’t quite remember, other than he’s always been fond of Tuesday’s.
Kris Kringle, better known as “Santa Claus,” has been on the job for many—MANY—years and has lost most of his enthusiasm for the same old cookies, what with the rise of Gluten Free, Vegan, Nut Allergies and the like.
Options for consideration:
Like many business owners, Santa is a legacy position and until recently has been passed from father to son. If family succession is not an option, which he must consider, the geography of head office, talent acquisition and retention means finding a replacement is no easy feat. There are choices to consider:
· Sell outright
· Re-capitalization
· Liquidate
· Hire CEO/COO | Chairman
· Family Transfer
· Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)
· Management Buy-out
In our fictional case study, Kris has four children:
· Charlie (from the first marriage)
· Kasper (from a brief liaison with Judy prior to his marriage to Mrs. Claus)
· Kristi
· Arthur
Although originally interested in “the shop”, Charlie saw the decades, perhaps centuries he may have to wait for the red cap to come his way and has made own mark in the world. Always a wiz in technology, Charlie, is a leader in web design and digital marketing, primarily for the other immortals like the Easter Bunny. He was instrumental in the surge of affection for Mother Nature, capitalizing on the environmental movement and is current taking on the train wreck which is the Tooth Fairy.
Kasper is a big movie producer, under an alias (can’t tell you who, as they want to make their own way—Santa is a tough act to follow). He lives in California and has no intention of living near snow again.
Kristi has been instrumental in the revitalization of the workshop and shows significant interest in the overall operations, working in tandem with elfin controller Lotta Green. Although she hasn’t made a move in the direction of taking over, seeming to be content in the “back office” organization. Kris doesn’t want to waste her potential and is considering if he can do like the late Queen Elizabeth and change the transition rules. Gender bias is outdated and even if Kristi isn’t interested, he doesn’t want to limit the opportunities for potential future generations.
Arthur, like Kristi is actively involved in the key drivers of the business, working more closely with Hattie Point and Wabbit Fire building Santa’s profile, constantly updating his social media posts and ensuring the mall Santa’s toe the line for representing the big picture of Christmas goodness. He’s quite put off on the change in Twitter to X and has considered adding Elon Musk to the naughty list.
Dynamics
Mrs. Claus has been hounding Santa to make a plan. Mrs. Claus was the bookkeeper until she had enough when Clyde Even, the legendary auditor pointed out that all the books were in a mess. She threw up here hands and ran away to Hawaii. Unfortunately, for Clyde, she all but ignored the jurisdictional legislation and tax. Since her departure, there has been a preliminary audit with some back taxes being added to liabilities, but there are still some questionable things that nobody has been able to figure out, let alone move toward cleaning it up.
Kris’ brother Fred has many business enterprises. After having delivered gifts one Christmas when Kris was too ill, he really fell in love with reindeer flight and is now trying to establish zero emissions sleigh flight as an option to traditional air travel and would like Kris to get involved as a spokesperson.
Kris is intrigued by this new opportunity. This may be an excellent transition for him, utilizing his skills with both reindeer training and years of operational sleigh driving.
Outside of Kristi and her team, the SOPs for the other divisions haven’t been updated since the early 1800’s. Kristi’s success has created a buzz for a full automation update. There’s a great need to get things out of people’s heads.
Other Considerations
With four children and only two with some real interest in the “business” how will wealth from the sale be distributed, while ensuring he and Mrs. Claus have enough for their next adventure. Remember, he is immortal.
He’s considered an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), headed by Ona Move, who’s shown significant interest and simply hiring for the position of Sled Driver and Deliver of Goods. Ona Move says that can choose from the multitude of dedicated mall Santa’s. However, without ownership, there is a threat of losing the secret identity mystique.
His staff are loyal, though there are increased competition elfin employees given their speed and dedication. He learned his lesson when Bernard and Judy were enticed away by Cindy-Loo Who (don’t be taken in by that sweet smile. She’s a shark in disguise.) to head operations for the Grinch who has made his mark in holiday lawn ornaments. With the recent merger of Horton, they are now direct competition for the naughty/nice campaign.
Legacy Elements
Until now, Kris is reluctant to even decide because Christmas is truly “his” domain. He has some big boots to fill. It’s him children clamor to see, his face is used to sell thousands of products, and his story which is retold every year. It is an empire built on trust, leadership and efficiency. Delivering happiness annually.
Would people still feel the same if His was not the face of Christmas? Everyone involved wants to avoid the potential for internal and external (social media) panic like:
· “This could be the end of Christmas!”
· “The children are scared!”
· “The parents are going to have our hides!”
· “Where has all the hope gone?”
Knowing that this would be a multi-year development plan, Kris and the Board decided to avoid speculation or rumors and enlisted the assistance of their benefit consultant, Bob Cratchit, from MP Benefits, to strategize to have regular meetings with the elves and reindeer to updated them on what was happening, to answer any questions, to thank them for their support and reassure them this was not something that would happen overnight.
Like Christmas Eve, planning and effective execution is key.
Private Equity Group
Having dissolved the corporate structure of Scrooge and Marley when Ebenezer moved into more philanthropic work, the no chains are going to slow me down Marley teamed up with Burgermeister Meisterburger. Their investment into Halloween has launched October 31st into a well anticipated world-wide event complete with decorations, corn mazes, and midnight ghost festivals.
The duo has made a bid for consideration, but to date, with their previous experiences back in the 1800’s this does seem like a values match.
Capital Value Drivers
Talent Capital:
The elves are indispensable and form a significant percentage of the value of the corporation. While Santa is the “face” of the firm, he would be nothing if he had no deliverables and that is all due to the magic of the staffing.
Structural Capital:
Logistics are Santa’s greatest strength but also his greatest vulnerability.
Kris established his centralized manufacturing in the North Pole in order to maintain secrecy of the operation. There’s a huge capital cost if they need to move facilities. North Pole operation is a cold place to work, and the northern isolation fee is a significant expense.
There’s pressure from changing global supply chains and increasing scrutiny on social license to operate. The legal team’s battle with the frequent IP infringements is starting to become costly.
Customer Capital:
Santa has an astonishingly large and accurate data base. This is frequently the topic of social media banter, especially with that unfortunate song lyric “he sees you when you’re sleeping, and he knows when you’re awake.” So untrue, but misinformation continues to flourish on the net.
Santa has accumulated a global database of quantitative geospatial information. This includes the number of children and their specific location. He supports this with detailed qualitative information including if have they been naughty or nice and what their gift preferences are. Children, as supported by the parents freely supply this information waiving their right to privacy.
Social Capital:
Thanks to Arthur’s dynamic involvement in the media relations, Santa is more popular than ever, as outlined in a previous section.
Financial Performance:
From the sale of Christmas decorations, swinging singing Santa’s, paraphernalia of all sorts, there is a constant flow of revenue, enough to support the research and development of toy, influence the marketplace, and distribution. This area has significant growth potential, given Kristi’s logistical improvements, as outlined in a previous section. Kris has limited undue growth for the sake of more money, preferring to give a percentage of the profits back to children’s charities.
Some Holiday Fun
Though we’ve taken an abundance of liberty here with the legend of Santa Claus, we feel that comparing any business to the operations and clear dynamics that Santa would face in the face of planning his succession is not so different from any other business owner when it comes to planning, legacy, identity and what will you do next—after the sale.
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Note: this was written without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI
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