Pick up where you left off.
Course Content
Succession Planning & Future-Proofing Your Studio
One day the founder steps back. Most studios have no plan for who takes over, or what they own.
A strategic approach to leadership transition, continuity and resilience in architectural practice. Compare internal promotion, sale and merger, value the practice, and put the buy sell, shareholder and intellectual property agreements in place before you need them. Then keep projects, registration and client files safe through disruption, and open a staged equity pathway for the people who will lead the studio next.
Secure card checkout. Tax invoice emailed.
4 modules, final quiz and certificate.
Introduction and objectives
Why succession is about leadership, ownership, continuity and culture, not only retirement, and what a missing plan has cost other practices.
Strategic Succession Planning in Design Studios
Name the triggers, from retirement to sudden illness, and choose between internal promotion, external sale and merger for a studio of your size.
Financial, Legal, and Cultural Considerations
Value the practice on earnings, assets and goodwill, set up buy sell, shareholder and IP agreements, and carry the studio’s ethos and clients through the change.
Business Continuity & Resilience Planning
Remove key person risk with delegation and cross training, document workflows, secure BIM files and client data, and keep a registered architect responsible for live projects.
Employee Ownership & Equity Pathways
Compare ESOPs, partnerships and cooperatives, design staged equity for emerging leaders, and see how a 12 person studio shared ownership over five years.
Summary & Key Takeaways
Turn the four objectives into an actionable succession roadmap for your own studio.
Final quiz and certificate
Ten multiple choice questions on succession models, agreements, continuity and ownership pathways. Pass and the certificate goes straight into your dashboard.
Advanced. For directors, principals and senior staff with decision making authority, or preparing for it. Covers succession triggers and models, practice valuation, buy sell, equity transfer and shareholder agreements, IP ownership, governance, inclusive leadership transitions, business continuity, digital asset management, ISO 9001 and ISO 22301, and employee ownership. It is practice management education, not financial, legal or tax advice.
Written for everyone who will hand over, take over or advise on a studio.
Architects
Your name is on the registration, the contracts and the live projects, and nobody else is ready to take them on.
Studio Directors
You built the practice, and you want it to outlast you with its clients, people and design ethos intact.
Practice Managers
You hold the files, passwords, insurance and agreements that decide whether the studio keeps running when a director leaves.
Succession Advisors
You guide design practices through valuation, equity transfer and governance, and need to know how studios really work.
Interior Architects
You may be next in line for a share of the studio, and want to know what a fair equity pathway looks like.
Where this hour goes on your record.
National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA 2021) performance criteria this course aligns with:
Regulatory and insurance obligations
Practice resources and quality assurance
Client architect agreements and partial services
Copyright, moral rights and cultural knowledge
Risk management and appropriate insurances
| If you are | How it is recorded |
|---|---|
| An architect | 1 formal CPD point in practice management. Aligned with NSCA 2021 performance criteria PC1, PC2, PC5, PC15 and PC16. |
| A studio director or practice manager | 1 hour of CPD on succession, governance and business continuity, recorded on your certificate for your professional body or your own records. |
| An interior architect or succession advisor | 1 hour of CPD on ownership transition, valuation and equity pathways, recorded on your certificate and kept in your dashboard. |
CPD On Demand is not a registered training organisation and courses are not accredited by any registration body. Each course is aligned with the relevant competency frameworks and gives you the records to evidence it. CPD rules differ by registration body and state, so check with yours if you are unsure.
Pairs well with.
Growing a Design Practice: From Sole Trader to Studio
The business structures and first hires that decide how a studio can later be handed on.
Building a Profitable Design Studio: Financial Essentials
The profit, cash flow and margin numbers a buyer or successor will value the studio on.
Contracts & Risk Management for Architects and Designers
The agreements, IP clauses and insurance that protect the practice through any change of hands.
Before you enrol.
Plan who leads your studio next, and protect what it owns, in one self-paced hour.
$99, 60 minutes, certificate on completion.