Why clashes are inevitable—and how to resolve them
Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business:
9 Symptoms of Generational Stack-Up and How to Cure Them
By Mark T. Green
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011; 192 pp., $25
Intergenerational conflicts in family enterprises aren’t just common—they’re inevitable, notes Family Business Consulting Group principal Mark Green in his edifying new book. The underlying factors, according to Green, are discrepancies in values, mindsets, approaches and expectations among members of different generations. Baby boomers (born 1946-64), for example, tend to put off retirement, a situation that creates role confusion for their Gen X children (born 1965-80), who tend to have strong entrepreneurial leanings and yearn to take risks. Members of Generation Y (born 1981-2009) have been spared from unpleasantness by their “helicopter” parents and thus, as they enter the workforce, many feel entitled to major roles they are ill-equipped to handle.
Compounding such generational personality differences, the author notes, are demographic realities: People are living longer and retiring later. Women with children are continuing to work (or, if not, are feeling conflicted about it). The increased prevalence of divorce has resulted in more blended families.
Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business diagnoses seven common strains of a syndrome Green calls “generational stack-up,” which occurs when members of different generations work together as owners, managers, employees and/or shareholders of a family business.
Green’s text includes insights from a variety of disciplines: not only demography, family business and management, as one would expect, but also neurobiology, psychology, sociology, gender studies and more. His multidisciplinary approach adds context to the predictable but intractable family business scenarios he describes, thereby helping readers of different generations to understand each other.
Family businesses, Green writes, “resemble mini Towers of Babel in many ways…. [B]ecause each generation of family business members speaks a different language—based on discrepant values and approaches to work, money, and family—they struggle to collaborate, often clashing, until parts of the tower crumble or the whole thing tumbles.”
The book diagnoses various manifestations of stack-up and analyzes the symptoms (such as a senior-generation member who hoards all the decision-making, or a family business woman who sets unrealistic expectations of herself both at work and at home). The author suggests ways to help resolve the conflicts. “Recognizing the patterns and addressing the symptoms with the idea of making continuous improvement helps keep stack-up patterns from getting out of control,” he writes.
Each chapter includes an illustrative case study (a composite drawn from the families Green has worked with, along with a genogram to illustrate the relationships), a discussion of how and why the problems arose, a checklist to help readers determine whether their own company is affected by the symptom, and recommended ways to address it.
Green’s suggestions for addressing generational stack-up include family meetings and other mechanisms to encourage reticent family members to communicate with each other. He also urges families to plan fun activities and working mothers to schedule “me time.” Family members must take care to follow up, he stresses, to ensure that their progress is maintained.
Many family business stakeholders will recognize themselves or their relatives in the pictures Green paints. His helpful recommendations offer a way out of the circle of recurring conflict, though, as he notes, there are no quick fixes. “[U]ltimately ‘management’ of the problem is what works, not one-time solutions,” the author writes. “You have to take the long-term view.”
An adventurous approach to philanthropy
Are you seeking a novel way to get your next-generation members engaged in philanthropy? Maryann Fernandez, a consultant with a background in the wealth management and philanthropic arenas, offers services designed to bring fun and adventure to philanthropic efforts—and, she says, to get people “out of the boardroom and into the field.”
Her firm, Philanthropy Indaba (www.philanthropyindaba.com)—the name is a Zulu word meaning “a meeting of people from different tribes”—offers travel opportunities for high-net-worth family members seeking hands-on engagement and an in-depth exploration of the world’s most critical issues. Philanthropy Indaba provides services to a variety of families and individuals but is particularly focused on the next generation.
Fernandez, formerly vice president of family education services and senior marketing representative at Harris Private Bank in Chicago, founded Philanthropy Indaba in 2009 to help donors “sharpen the focus of their philanthropy, and strengthen the impact of their engagement.”
At press time, Philanthropy Indaba had scheduled a two-week trip to Ghana for a small group of next-generation members from ages 16 to 22. The travelers planned to make a documentary that captured the stories of Ghanaian citizens as well as the filmmakers’ own experiences and impressions. (Citing security concerns, Fernandez declined to specify the dates of the trip or identify participants.) A professional field producer/camera operator would accompany the group, but the hands-on work was to be spearheaded by the participants.
The documentary film project aimed to offer the young travelers experience in working as a team and researching the three areas to be explored in the film (the tragedy of human trafficking, the impact of mobile technology in the area and the development of innovative business initiatives, such as a fair trade cocoa cooperative). Fernandez says the hands-on filmmaking project would enable participants to immerse themselves in issues such as poverty and women’s empowerment and, at the same time, help the budding philanthropists to discover their passions and find their own voice.
“I wanted to make sure [the trip] wasn’t just a tour,” explains Fernandez. “I really wanted [participants] to be focused, and I wanted them to be seeking answers.”
Philanthropy Indaba can also develop a service or internship opportunity that’s targeted to a client’s interest, plan a philanthropic family vacation or design custom philanthropic coaching programs. It offers local, national and international travel experiences, all of which can be customized to meet a family’s needs. Fernandez says her organization “quarterbacks” the travel logistics as well as the educational and philanthropic aspects of a trip and offers access to the key people working in the field to achieve social change.
Fernandez co-founded Shaking the Tree Interactive Productions, which uses storytelling to address challenges in affluent families. She has also provided consulting services to non-profit groups and helped launch a private network of ultra-affluent philanthropists.
“What I envision,” she says, “is bringing people with different perspectives, different skill sets and different resources together to address [social-change] issues. People have been siloed up for too long.”
Planning for a smooth transition by developing future leaders
Who Will Drive the Bus? Guidance for Developing Leaders in the Family Enterprise
By Gerard J. Donnellan
Big Leap, 2011; 161 pp., $21.95
Family business owners should never lose sight of the future, contends author Gerard Donnellan, Ph.D., a Lexington, Mass.-based consulting psychologist and family business consultant. “If you are part of a family business,” Donnellan writes in his new book, Who Will Drive the Bus?, “you are always dealing with transition—getting through one, getting over one, preparing for one, denying one is going to happen, or wishing you did not have to deal with one.”
Donnellan’s book focuses on succession planning from a leadership development perspective. The author uses case studies (featuring fictitious families) to demonstrate the advantages of taking a long-term view—and the pitfalls that result when business families fail to do so.
“If everything is considered in light of vision and strategy,” Donnellan suggests, “there will be fewer bad moves.”
The author cautions readers to steer clear of the danger zone he refers to as “snoozetown,” a place where “genes win over merit, family members are more focused on their own interests than those of the business, conflicts go unresolved [and] there is poor communication all around.” Snoozetown, he explains, is “the place where family businesses are headed after they have had a good run (maybe several generations), after the fun has left, and after nobody really cares that much about the business. They are mostly dozing off, waiting for the check.”
Donnellan supplements his case studies with planning tools and theoretical models drawn from academic family business research. He ends each chapter with a checklist of action items and business tips. “Making the decision to act,” he advises, “is far more important than trying to get it absolutely right.”
The author discusses the role of advisers and consultants in helping family business owners work through their challenges—and offers frank comments on the matter of the consultant’s fee. “It’s a business expense,” Donnellan writes, “and should be viewed that way.” He adds, “Anything you do will cost a few bucks. Chill. It is all worth it and is much cheaper than losing the company or your family.”
Donnellan adds an interesting perspective to a common problem: family members’ entitlement attitude. A culture of privilege—where young people rise rapidly in the company regardless of merit—the author writes, can actually undermine self-esteem. “[The children] act as if what they do is of no consequence. That is exactly how they feel—they are of no consequence.”
Donnellan’s sense of humor and step-by-step approach make his advice easy to digest. To begin working on transition and leadership development, he writes, “There is only one place to start, and that’s wherever you are right now.”