Succession in owner-driven Mittelstand and the AI seat are adjacent - not the same product. When a generation change runs and nobody carries the contested AI yes, a lasting bearer is missing.
Christian Pobbig and Beyond Chiefs work from Hamburg on AI Executive Search in DACH. Adjacent to Hidden Champions - succession + AI bearer here. No kill-slug revival.
False assumption: Succession is solved - AI comes later. Later often means initiative without judgment. Killed Mittelstand headhunter slugs stay dead.
When succession opens the bearer moment: the AI Executive Search mandate for the lasting bearer of the AI decision.
