Monthly Archives: January 2017

01/27/17

Envisioning A Great Family Business

My blog this week is built around two quotes from Sam Johnson, the fourth-generation patriarch of the SC Johnson Company. The first:

“Each generation has the responsibility of bringing to the business their own vision for the future of the business.”[1]  

Recently my wife and I spent a weekend at the Mohonk Mountain House on the southern edge of the Catskills in upstate New York.

Built by twin brothers Albert and Alfred Smiley in the 1870’s as a small getaway for family and friends, Mohonk Mountain House continues today as an historic resort hotel owned and operated by the Smiley brothers’ descendants. Subsequent generations have added to both the house and to the adjoining Mohonk Preserve whose over 9300 acres of trails, woodlands and pastures are open to guests of the Mountain House and the public.

I marveled at the scope and durability of the Smiley brothers’ original vision. While the house has been updated with modern conveniences, the descendants of Albert and Alfred have not moved far from the original vision. It retains its 19th century character, and the values of stewardship, reflection, and renewal are all evident to visitors and guests.

Again from Sam Johnson:

“A great family business, no matter its size, has to be more than a financial investment. To survive long term, it must be a social positive for the employees, a benefit for the community, a passion for future generations of the family, and committed to earning the goodwill of the consumer every day.”[2]

This kind of success starts with a vision–like the Smiley brothers’–no matter how small or how large; with an intent no matter how viable; with a first step no matter how insignificant, embracing the wisdom of Sam Johnson.

[1] Ernesto Poza, Family Business, 3rd Edition. (Independence, KY: South-Western Cengage Learning. 2010, 2007), 100

[2] Ibid., 294

 

 

 

01/20/17

Transition, Transition—How Goes the Transition?

Family businesses offer a unique opportunity to examine what it takes to transition from the entrepreneurial mindset of the founder to that of an established and complex enterprise. The oldest form of business, family firms represent the majority of businesses worldwide. Given that they are ubiquitous, one might assume their best practices are well understood. Yet most fail by the third generation.

One reason for family-business failure may be embedded in their very beginnings. While the founding entrepreneur’s decision to start a business may be intentional, the transition to becoming a family business may be less intention than something that ‘just happens.’ The entrepreneur starts a business, gets married and at some point has children. The children may get taken to work by a parent struggling to balance life and work issues. At some point the children start helping out, providing inexpensive labor, and ‘willy-nilly,’ learning the workings of the business.

Over time one of the children assumes a greater role in the business, eventually beginning to make important decisions. Another child may enter the business simply because there is a job opportunity. A natural hierarchy develops as the business calls forth and accommodates the capacities of each of the siblings.

As the children’s capabilities increase, the entrepreneurial founder spends less and less time working the business, and one day decides it’s time to retire. The children inherit the business with the condition and promise that their parents will be taken care of. A simple, straightforward transition has taken place.

Typically these grown children of the founder will marry and have children who become the family’s third generation. And here lies a critical family-business turning point.

When the time comes for this third generation to inherit ownership and control of the business, their parents look back at the transition model that functioned when they inherited. And it is found wanting. By now things have become significantly more complex. Not just siblings anymore; cousins are now involved. A new model of inheritance, role distribution and governance must be found.

Understanding this inevitable pattern is the first step toward a successful transition from entrepreneurial to multi-generational-family-business success.

01/13/17

Pathways of Ownership Distribution

It’s not uncommon for a family to pass on ownership of their business equally among all their children. When this second generation passes on their shares these may again flow equally among their children—the family’s third generation. According to this approach, the two siblings in the second generation will each receive ownership of fifty percent of the business. Then, for example, if one of these siblings has two children, and the other has three children, the two children of the first sibling will each inherit twenty-five percent of the business, and the three children of the other sibling will each inherit sixteen percent of the business. In legal terms this distribution by equal shares is known as per stirpes.

Alternatively, each of the third-generation children might receive an equal percentage of the business; in law this is known as per-capita distribution. In the example above each of the five, third-generation offspring would inherit twenty percent of the business.

According to Susan R. Schoenfeld, CEO of Wealth Legacy Advisors, neither approach is inherently fair or unfair—each family should decide for itself.

01/6/17

Family-Business Structure—Three Circles

Establishment of smoothly working interrelationships among the business family, business ownership and business management is one of the challenges as well as strengths of a family business. In the first generation these groups invariably have all the same players. But as generations pass the picture can become significantly more complex. To help with visualizing the interdependence of the three overlapping groups, or subsystems, comprising the family-business system, Renato Tagiuri and John Davis developed an organizing framework in simple graphic terms (below).

Microsoft Word - Three Circle Graphic.docx

Their Three-Circle Model provides a basis for understanding the seven interest groups that emerge, each with its own legitimate perspectives, dynamics and goals. The long-term success of the business depends on their independent functioning, interdependent relationships and mutual support.