Tag Archives: succession

11/2/19

Generosity And Connection

Sitting down to write today’s blog piece I was thinking about several concepts related to family business. Among these, the difficulty of choosing the right successor, the significance of shared family values, the importance of stewardship (the passing on of family assets—wealth, reputation, emotional well-being, spirituality—in better condition than when you received them.)

As I do at times, I turned to others for ideas. In this case I found what I was looking for in a blog by Seth Godin.

Godin’s article Bread and Book, is not intended to be a comment on family businesses. But it’s one of the best—and more tragic—stories I’ve seen of succession, family values and stewardship https://seths.blog/2019/10/bread-and-books/. It’s a story of world-famous baker Lionel Poilâne and how Godin and Poilâne met and became friends.

Describing what he learned from his time with Poilâne, Godin wrote: “Ideas, bread and books are all the same–they’re better when they’re shared. The posture of generosity and connection replaces a mindset of scarcity, and Lionel modeled this philosophy every day.” From his friendship with Poilâne Godin learned about the magical intersection between generosity and idiosyncrasy.

Tragically, Lionel Poilâne and his wife were killed in a helicopter crash, leaving behind two teenage daughters. It’s here that the story enters the realm of family business.

The elder daughter, Apollonia, immediately stepped up and took over the running of the bakery. She’s made a success of it, with no diminution of quality. And she’s recently published a book.

In Poilâne: The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery, Apollonia relates her family’s story. It begins with her grandfather and now flows to the fourth generation. She writes: “The seeds of this book were planted by my father and mother in my sister and me. They are seeds of passion, determination, and love for our craft. My sister, Athena, helped me germinate those seeds, and with the birth of her son, we now have another generation with whom to share our family story.”

Family values, succession, stewardship. It’s all there for the learning,

04/29/16

Reality Is Bigger

Last week I attended the annual conference of Attorneys for Family Held Enterprises (AFHE). While there, I had the opportunity to hear speakers from a range of professional disciplines: family business advisors, financial planners, psychologists and attorneys.

I was particularly impressed by the clarity of the presentation entitled ‘Engaged Ownership. More Effective Governance for Multi-Generational Family Businesses’ given by Amelia Renkert-Thomas, former CEO of Ironrock Inc., her family’s 5th generation manufacturing business and founding partner of Renkert Thomas Consulting LLC.

In her presentation Ms. Renkert outlines commonly held assumptions about family business and counters them with realities. Here are selected bullet points taken from her slides:

Assumptions

  • Making money is the primary objective
  • Succession is about who will run the company
  • Shareholders are primarily interested in dividends
  • Continuity is the preferred outcome

Reality

  • There is more at stake than money
  • Succession is about preparing for multiple roles
  • Shareholders are primarily interested in shared purpose and vision
  • Continuity of core capital, not necessarily the business

All of these points are ‘tip-of-the-iceberg’ statements, the results of study, thought and experience. They invite investigation, discussion and action. What are your thoughts?

04/2/16

Pulled Into the Future

The leadership, vision and entrepreneurial talent of the founding generation of a family business may be very different than that needed in subsequent generations; and installing a successor who is a copy of the founder may result in the failure of the business to change with an evolving market environment or the growing needs of a larger business.

For example, the business may now have more need of leaders who develop collaborative relationships than those who get things done by themselves, or of strategists who find new opportunities as the size of the family grows.

“Respect the past while keeping an eye on the future.” This important family-business axiom, together with a phrase I read twenty years ago in “Breaking Point and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today by George Land and Beth Jarman—“allow yourself to be pulled by the future”–are potent strategies for expansion and growth.