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Previous research indicates that a high percentage of family firms are not able to transfer to the next generation. This is, for the most part, due to poor succession. In this regard, the competency of the predecessor in nurturing a competent successor is a central issue. The purpose of this paper is to identify the predecessor competencies required to nurture a successor.

The research applied a qualitative research methodology with a case study approach, whereby five large Iranian family firms which have maintained superior performance across generations were studied.

The findings indicated that predecessor competencies required for successor nurturing are open-mindedness, risk-taking, patience, explicitness, motivation, trustworthiness, communicative skills, and value orientation. Cross-case analysis also revealed that successor attributes and family attributes influence the importance of the predecessor’s competencies.

The literature suggests a number of attributes that predecessors require for nurturing the successor in family firms. However, previous studies have proven to be weak in doing a systematic study, from a competency-based approach, to find the required predecessor competencies based on the methods used to nurture the successor. Therefore, this research would be helpful in explaining the predecessor’s required competencies for nurturing the successor.