Family Factor
Casting Your Vote: 8 Decision-Making Techniques to Minimize Conflict
Discover 8 decision-making techniques to foster fairness, reduce conflict, and help family businesses make choices that everyone can accept.
How an Owners Council Can Benefit a Family Business
Learn what an owners council is, its key benefits, how it operates, reasons to form one, and how it differs from a family council.
How to Engage a Family Business Consultant
Five essential tips to setup your consultative relationship for success At Continuity, we understand the paradox that families face when considering the prospect of hiring a family business consultant. Often, the very reasons why a family might benefit from such a consultant ─ lack of goal alignment among stakeholders, conflict, communication issues, or just being stuck ─ are the same reasons that prevent them from coming together in agreement to seek outside help. Drawing from my own experience when I was on the client-side of this work, I recognize the importance of addressing these concerns head-on. With this in [...]
Overcoming Family Business Conflict and Achieving Succession Success
How one family resolved their differences and empowered a new CEO The Challenge Stakeholders in a family-owned construction business were in conflict over management succession, which created crippling conflict between family members. The founder, owner, and president of this company, Peter, wanted his daughter, Christine, to eventually succeed him as CEO. Peter’s brother, Jack, who was second-in-command at the company, rejected the plan to prepare his niece to become CEO and walked off the job, feeling angry and unappreciated for the value he had brought to the business. While Jack didn’t envision himself taking over for his brother, the [...]
The Progenitor’s Dilemma: Avoiding Entitlement When Transferring Wealth
A practical framework that empowers heirs while minimizing negative consequences Wealth can, at times, feel more like a curse than a blessing. Wealth magnifies the impact of bad choices and presents dilemmas to those progenitors who must determine how to distribute their assets over their lifetimes and beyond. Perhaps the biggest fear among benefactors is transferring wealth in a way that engenders entitlement. Progenitors do not want affluence to crush the next-generation’s initiative, sense of purpose or self-esteem. They also want to ensure that those receiving some of their wealth do not confuse self-worth with net-worth. This can be [...]
8 Ways to Manage Sibling Wealth Disparity this Holiday Season
The holidays can be the best time to address ill feelings triggered by gift-giving The holiday season is upon us and, for many families, this time of year can bring a multitude of issues to the surface. One such issue, sibling wealth disparity, (re)emerges when it comes to gift-giving. Money and items gifted by siblings may not be of equal value due to their wealth disparity, and this can wreak havoc and cause conflict among families. In order to maintain harmonious sibling relationships, it’s critical to understand how to manage sibling wealth disparity. To start, it’s important to ensure the [...]
Turkey Talk: Discussing Family Business Issues at Holiday Get-Togethers
How to handle family business conflicts, decisions, and discussions around the holiday dinner table We’ve all seen the pictures—a happy family gathered around the dining table as dad carves the perfectly cooked turkey while the children play and share their toys in an impeccable home. These television and movie scenes depict families enjoying the holidays filled with laughter and joy. But for many of us, especially for some working in a family business, these images are as elusive as that winning lottery ticket. Not only are our families not paragons of perfection, but some of us have begun to dread [...]
The Real Purpose of Family Enterprise Governance: Developing the “Four Capitals”
Nurturing the four types of capital to maximize the potential of your enterprising family. In this commentary, we explore the four types of capital—financial, human, spiritual, and social, and the family enterprise governance system’s crucial role in promoting each of these for the benefit of the family. Family enterprise governance systems may look different for different families. For some families, governance is a highly structured system of a family council, family office board, and a family business board; all connected by a well-crafted constitution with process, rules, and expectations. For other families, family enterprise governance may simply be a [...]
What’s Considered ‘Fair’ in Family Business?
4 things to consider when seeking outcomes that are acceptable to all stakeholders The question of what is fair has perplexed many family business owners, and their search for fairness often results in conflict. Why? Because when it comes to the search for fairness—there is no single answer. The term ‘fairness’ can have different meanings. In business, fairness is based on merit—the more you produce, the more you should earn; when it comes to ownership, fairness is proportional—the more you own, the more benefit of control and distributions of profit you should have; and for families, fairness is often (but [...]
Managing Disputes and Avoiding Conflict in a Family Enterprise
Using COVID-19 vaccination disagreements to highlight dispute resolution approaches As COVID-19 vaccinations continue to roll out across the country, most companies are beginning to develop protocols for returning to work in person. While for many this is great news, this can be particularly challenging for family businesses with family members and non-family employees who have conflicting perspectives on the concept of vaccines. This blog will highlight methods family businesses can use to manage disputes regarding the vaccine and what to do if there’s an underlying conflict involved. Is this a dispute or a conflict? Vaccine hesitancy versus advocacy can be [...]
