21st October 2010
In my capacity as business coach, I often work with family businesses, husband and wife, father and son or daughter, or even more extended relationships, involving cousins, uncles etc. Without exception, one of the hardest aspects involved in this is that of succession i.e. the handing over the reins from one generation to the next. In fact only today I was speaking to a highly successful and resourceful Managing Director who was telling me how hard she was finding it to get her father to let go, and allow her to run the business her way.
I am currently working with another extremely successful company, which has been very well run over the years, but the time has come for the next generation to take over. This is not really in contention, in that the Managing Director (the father) is quite happy to work on a part-time basis, but the trouble is, he still wants to keep control of everything. Naturally enough this is not a tenable situation, and in order for the business to take the quantum steps forward which the sons want to do, he has to be prepared to step aside, and trust them to make executive decisions themselves.
So how do we get around this, without causing major family ructions? The best solution I can come up with is to take the emotion out of it by writing a clear (new) business structure. This identifies in detail the new roles and responsibilities everyone has agreed to do, and ensures that once these are in place that the old regime do not get involved in areas for which they are no longer responsible. Often this is still quite hard to enforce initially, but gradually once the ex. M.D. sees that things do run well without him or her, and they realise that if they try to interfere in areas they are not wanted that they will consistently be told to back-off, bit by bit they will learn to enjoy their new role, and meaningful change can then be introduced.
As a rider to this, it should be said that to sideline the older members of the family altogether, is a rash and potentially wasteful use of resources. After all, they didn’t get to where they are without being canny businessmen in their own right, so keep them as your mentors, and use their knowledge and advice when you need it. In this way you get the best out of both worlds. Positive change and great support.
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