Abdication: for kings and corporate dynasts, it’s all about timing

A couple of royal handovers and a papal resignation and suddenly abdication – which used to have a near uniformly negative connotation – is all the rage.

And why not? King Juan Carlos of Spain may have ended his reign amid humiliating scandal (I was in Madrid for what turns out to have been his last Christmas address and the rage and disdain of his subjects, on Twitter and elsewhere, was palpable), but he has taken a final, highly positive decision. It would be tempting to apply the lessons to public companies, but succession planning in the listed sector is comparatively sophisticated, and the process quite different. It is family-controlled companies that should be paying attention to the news from Spain.