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The Institute for Family Enterprising Blog brings you the latest in events, research and thoughts from within the nexus of family business and entrepreneurship. We will also use authors and findings from our major research arm - the STEP Project.
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A Next Generation Vision
Do you feel trapped in your own business? People and organizations get caught in
self-reinforcing patterns of behavior and they loose perspective on how to
change their situation. For small
business owners, one of the traps is around their desire to grow, in addition
their belief that the business it too small to utilize the tools and practices
of larger businesses. These patterns of thinking are usually passed down the
generational latter which results in a no growth strategy.I found that one important maxim applies here, "Keep on
doing what you're doing...keep on getting what you are getting." The principle is simple. Unless you change the inputs you will get the
same outputs. The thing that amazes me
the most is that we don't change what we are doing, but we still complain about
what we are getting.
The strategy for changing this behavior is to adopt a vision
that is bigger than you are so that you are forced to invest in making it
happen. However, through discussions I have found that many owners confuse the
vision of wanting "more" with that of wanting growth. In my experience, many owners
think they want "growth" but they really just want "more." Because they are unwilling to adopt the processes
and practices that lead to growth, they live with an inconsistency that fuels
the feelings of being trapped in their current situations.
When you have a vision that you know you can't accomplish on
your own it takes you beyond the business model of "more" and leads you to view
the establishment of professional business practices as an investment in growth. It is this investment mindset that changes
you from thinking like a small business to acting like a big business. It is
important to understand what you want and how you can achieve it. When you have
a vision that you are willing to invest in, you free yourself from the trap of
wishing for growth but now knowing how to find it.
Posted by Timothy Habbershon on April 17, 2008 15:01 | link
 Engaging the Next Generation
Did you even think of your family business as a playground, a summer camp, a learning laboratory, or a new business incubator? If not, maybe you should read this.
Many entrepreneurs are faced with the decision to either involve their kids in the family business or push them away due to personal experience. While these frustrations may occur, it is more useful to evaluate the situation as a parenting strategy as opposed to a family business issue. After speaking with Cindy Iannarelli, who has a Ph.D focusing on family businesses, we have discussed some do and don'ts for family business parenting.
A few simple rules of thumb are: it is important to know that it is never too early to expose your kids to a business. Just make sure you keep the activities age appropriate. Kids want to spend time with their parents, so here is a perfect way to combine both worlds. As they become older, they will become more curious about the business environment they have been exposed to. This is when you can let them do some fun jobs and give them a little compensation. As they continue to get older, the responsibilities and jobs can become more challenging and the compensation can increase. At this point, it is important to take a step back as a parent and become more of a professional peer.
If this may not seem like your ideal process, you can always use two less conventional approaches. You could run summer kid's camps, which could allow you to bring family members together to learn about business, or you could help them start their own business. Kid's love to build new things, so this opportunity will allow them to gain valuable life experience in addition to a great resume builder.
This opportunity is a great learning experience, and kids should enjoy it. One last important tid-bit for you to walk away with is don't assume that your kids will hate working with you and your business; what they hate is parents who don't know how to look at life from a kids perspective.
Posted by Timothy Habbershon on March 12, 2008 14:50 | link
Attracting Talent
Small businesses face a serious threat in their inability to attract educated talent that is willing to stick around for the long-run. Family firms have a built in talent advantage to address this threat, but sadly they often fail to realize it until it is too late. Here's an insight for parents: Your children are not just wrestling with a sense of obligation like you fear. Many of them have a vision for working together and really want to come back if you would make it a real option for them. The question now is how do you make it a real option? There are four important steps to attracting your family back to the business.
First, be willing to talk to them about "the wish". It is important to know what they wish for and be ready to move from the wish stage to the vision for the future. Next, be willing to do some business planning.
The next generation wants to know where the business is going and how they are going to get there. This may entail breaking out the business plan, job descriptions and other family involvement.
Third, be willing to talk about growth and wealth creation. Successors are the "young legs" that can take the business into the future. The next generation needs to be developed as leaders which means parents need to think beyond their lifestyle goals and give successors running room. This means establishing your children as serious colleagues, including tackling the compensation issue fairly and competitively.
Lastly, be willing to invest in communication and relationship building skills. The real win in family business is the opportunity to have a relationship with your children. Don't be afraid to see working together as much about relationships and business.
So, do you have the talent for the future? Don't miss the opportunity to attract your family talent back to the family business.
Posted by Timothy Habbershon on February 21, 2008 13:57 | link
Gender Issues in Family Busines
Do family businesses have gender issues like other firms? I actually seldom hear it discussed. Are family beliefs about sons, daughters, and spouses, or a father's view about women in the business considered "gender issues?" I thought they were just "family issues."
Many family businesses are in what typically are considered "male dominated industries" - construction, hardware, distributions, car wash, trucking, manufacturing. In most of the companies we have looked at, there were strong views and decisions as to what positions were appropriate for women, and most defaulted to the male beliefs about women's ability and opportunity. As a result, many multi generational businesses have a default leadership pipeline continually leading to male successors, but we find that this significantly constrained opportunities for both family and non-family women in leadership positions.
These gender discoveries directly impacted business decisions and practices. Gender biases demotivated women, stifled the thinking of leaders about the role of women in the business, how to attract and retain women, who their customers were, and their marketing and sales strategy. Further, they created tensions and at times conflict in both the family and the business, constrained the leadership development process and limited the candidates pool. Combined, these gender biases significantly limited the company's potential for growth and the ability to move beyond the small mom and pop mindset.
Family business leaders need to more actively address their gender issues.
- Consider that you may have some gender issue constraints on your organization.
- Ask your daughters and other women to give you their views on the role of women as owners and managers in your business.
- Increase the level of professionalism in the company, especially in the human resource area to address these gender issues.
Posted by Timothy Habbershon on January 10, 2008 13:01 | link
STEP Asia Pacific
Last week we began the STEP Project in Asia Pacific region with a launch on June 27-28. Hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, we had 11 Universities from all over Asia and Australia. Click here for a list of all of our new Asia Pacific partners. It was a great two days with fresh faces and institutions getting excited about family enterprising. We have received a lot of positive feedback and really feel the power of changing the way that people are thinking about family businesses.
The Asia Pacific launch was taken to a higher level with the gracious hosting and intelligent design of CUHK and their team of Kevin Au, Bee-leng Chua and Hugh Thomas. CUHK coordinated a family business forum for June 29th, immediately following the STEP academic launch. There were over 100 participants at this event with about two thirds being family business executives and owners. The pool of research resources that STEP brought to Hong Kong with the launch provided natural synergy for CUHK's forum. Tim Habbershon gave the keynote on "Transgenerational Entrepreneurship" and a session on "Finding your Familiness Advantage, and there was a panel session featuring researchers from the STEP Asia Pacific network. Following Tim's keynote, there was even a STEP launching ceremony for the audience and media with each partner institution putting together a piece of a puzzle.
We are thrilled with the energy coming out of the Asia Pacific region and can't wait to see what we will learn about family enterprising in the family context.
Posted by Robert Nason on July 07, 2007 11:18 | link
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