Tag Archives: family-business legacy

02/29/20

Envisioning Family Legacy

While consulting with the head of a family business, I frequently raise the subject of “legacy.” It comes up in connection with strategies for helping family-businesses move along the path of intergenerational transition; toward multi-generational success. Often however, at the mention of this word, I’m met with a sort of attention disconnect. For my client, the challenges of managing the business day-to-day overshadow any thoughts of building a legacy. It seems that this short-term focus creates a sort of mental cloud that diffuses any comprehension of what legacy is. This cloud cover affords no vision of the importance of legacy, or of its function or its range. It’s as though contemplating a legacy for future generations demands too much energy right now, and is seen as a luxury.

What is it about the idea of a legacy that’s so daunting? According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary the noun “legacy” means:

1: a gift by will especially of money or other personal property: BEQUEST// She left us a legacy of a million dollars.

2: something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past[1]

This kind of disconnect is not unreasonable when legacy is perceived only according to these definitions. But in my experience legacy in family business is far less strictly defined. It’s much broader, and in many respects less tangible. It includes family history, values, stories and reputation. It reflects the family’s accomplishments and bears witness to its challenges. Legacy is the imprint left behind by previous generations for following generations to learn from and experience.

It’s said in family-business-advisory circles that legacy springs from seeds planted in a garden by earlier family members who, while they will never see the resulting fruit, provide for future generations. In that sense each family business’ legacy exists even before its birth.

It may be helpful then, for family-business leaders to understand that their task is not to create a legacy from scratch but rather to sustain the stories that inspire family members across generations, together with a shared set of attitudes, values, goals and behaviors that characterize their own particular family.

The result is a multi-generational culture of harmonious family relationships, shared wealth, ownership, meaning and purpose.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legacy

 

07/27/18

Defining Productivity For Family Business

In a recent blog post, entitled Business/busyness https://seths.blog/2018/07/busyness/ Seth Godin states that what matters in business is the question: “did I spend my day producing enough benefit for all the time invested?”

Seth is asking an important question; I recommend that you read the entire blog post.

Further into the post he provides a suggestion for answering the question: “Once you know what you seek to produce (not an easy task), add up all the time you spent to create it.” While not exactly what he was writing about, I fixed-on the phrase “once you know what you seek to produce” and related it to family enterprises.

It is not uncommon for a family business to come about accidentally. One starts a business, gets married; has children. The children help out and eventually assume control of the business. If things go well the business grows and the second generation passes it on to their children, likely in the same way they received it. They in turn assume responsibilities and eventually control the business.

In this scenario the business is looked at in present time, and productivity is largely measured in the context of the business’ balance sheet. Family is important; but as an entity separate from the business itself. There is not yet generational thinking and recognition of a family-business legacy.

With each generation as they grow, family businesses become more complex. The simple mechanism of succession described above no longer works. For the business to continue now requires planning. It requires a longer view; an intention to produce a multi-generational family enterprise. “…once you know what you seek to produce” is key. Intention aligns family members, resources and practices in the direction of a shared goal.

03/24/17

Accident and Intention

A young family business—first or second generation—in which the family’s next generation have begun to find their places, has reached a point where two possible paths to becoming a multi-generational enterprise emerge. The incumbent generation can either let things play out willy-nilly—without any plan as to what the business may look like in the future—and perhaps, quite by accident, become multigenerational. Or they can begin with intention.

Intention sets the stage and gets the wheels turning. The thinking starts with what’s possible for the family and the business under future generations.

Starting with intention the current leadership can set their sights on a long-term vision: wealth creation across generations, and a legacy. With this in mind they can then draw upon centuries of knowledge and documented experiences from those families that have created successful multigenerational family enterprises.

To pave a surer path to multi-generational success, start with intention.

03/18/16

Giving Your Best

“My grandfather said to me, ‘Give the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.’[1]

Upon reading this, a particular family-business story came to mind: A friend of mine, the youngest sibling in a second-generation family business was frustrated by his father’s strong-minded control and by his older siblings’ apparent apathy. He saw that rather than giving their best, his siblings were showing up for work daily but purposefully only “treading water” until they were able to take control of the business.

My friend had left the business once and was about to again because he was unable to give his best within the confines of the family situation.

This complex situation might well benefit from counseling. But my purpose in writing this blog entry is solely to draw awareness to the lost potential for multi-generational family legacies when family members are not raised in a culture of giving their best in whatever role life asks of them.

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[1] Simmons, Annette, The Story Factor, Secrets of Influence from the Art of Storytelling, p. 9, Annette Simmons. Basic Books. 2001.

 

 

10/15/15

It’s All About People

In his October 4, 2015, NY Times column “Corner Office” Adam Bryant presented his interview with Gary B. Smith, CEO of the Ciena Corporation: “Gary Smith of Ciena: Build a Culture on Trust and Respect.” In it Smith shares some of his history, his early influences and how his views changed with experience. In last week’s blog I wrote about how Smith’s management philosophy of creating an environment that people could be successful in is important to the success of family businesses.

This week’s blog: “It’s all about people.” This is another important management principle, one that Smith says he learned early in his career, but that took time for him to truly grasp. “…if you get that right,” he says, “the other stuff will get addressed.”

In family businesses the people are all stakeholders–leaders, family members, team members, staff. The “other stuff:” smoothly running business operations, processes and procedures depends on careful attention to building and maintaining a culture of mutual trust and respect.

For me this means putting relationships first and business transactions second. It’s a philosophy for building a family-business legacy.

If you have thoughts or questions about building relationships of trust and respect within your family and family business, contact me through my website.

This is the second of three important management principles I pinpointed while reading Adam Bryant‘s interview with Gary B. Smith. I’ll share my thoughts on the third: “Differences and Consensus” in next week’s blog post.