An heir’s guide to self-awareness
When Your Parents Sign the Paychecks: Finding Career Success Inside or Outside the Family Business, by Greg McCann;
JIST Works, Indianapolis, 2007
256 pp., $19.95
Early adulthood is the time for young people to establish an independent identity and find a career that meshes with their interests and abilities. But many college students miss the opportunity to undertake this essential introspective work, especially if their families own a business. Some young heirs succumb to the temptation to coast through college, rationalizing that they have the family firm to “fall back” on; others fear that a decision to work outside the family business would anger or disappoint their parents. Often these next-generation members make such assumptions without ever discussing career expectations with their folks.
In When Your Parents Sign the Paychecks, author Greg McCann —founder of Stetson University’s Family Business Center and developer of the first undergraduate major in family business in the U.S.—aims to help young stakeholders “make informed choices about your life and career” by raising awareness of family business issues. “If you can see the predictable transitions for you, your family, and your family business, then you can prepare for them,” writes McCann, who formerly worked in his family’s business and now consults to business families in addition to his Stetson duties.
The book, based on McCann’s curriculum, provides an introduction to family business research—for example, it discusses the family and business as systems and explains the challenges of separating the roles of family member, business owner and employee. It also serves as a guide to self-discovery, offering life lessons that many people, alas, do not learn until their college years are far behind them. One memorable section is entitled “Don’t Be a Victim” (“Are you waiting for other people to change so you can be happy? If so, then you have a victim’s attitude”), and there is a chapter on overcoming defense mechanisms, which McCann calls “emotional resistance” (he labels this the most important chapter in the book). “Essentially,” he explains, “this book is meant to help you take ownership for your life.”
McCann guides readers through eight challenges they will confront throughout their lives as family business stakeholders (examples: “handling wealth and power,” “earning credibility instead of feeling entitled” and “writing your own script”). In the final chapters, the author urges readers to undertake projects to help them develop two traits that he calls essential—credibility and marketability. The two projects he outlines are required of Stetson’s family business majors, who also must complete an internship in a family business other than their own (or in a family business consulting firm).
The “McCann Action Plan for Life,” designed to instill credibility, consists of a self-assessment, a personal values clarification and definition of success, an in-depth exploration of three family business challenges, and a career analysis. To develop marketability, McCann recommends creating a portfolio that demonstrates an individual’s skills, credentials and experiences and is aligned with the life plan. McCann describes his own career journey, reflecting frankly that his parents influenced his choices. “I want to save you from the decade-long struggle that I went through,” he writes.
Yet the author urges readers to have in-depth discussions with their parents. McCann suggests that parents read the book along with their children; a free parents’ guide is available at www.jist.com. (“This is the beginning of a process that may well change how you and your child communicate,” he cautions in the parents’ guide.)
McCann writes engagingly, in plain English, often using sports metaphors. His tone is that of a devoted mentor, yet he emphasizes that the self-assessment process involves a lot of hard work. Throughout the text, the reader gets a strong sense of the author’s rapport with his students. “In some ways,” he writes, “I think people with great talent or intellect often can go longer in life avoiding some of this work. However, the longer they wait, the harder it is to deal with their issues. It is like getting in shape. You may think it is hard at 20, but man, it is a lot tougher at 45. Just ask your folks.”
Although the book is not intended primarily for use as a textbook, a teacher’s guide is available. (It features a syllabus, discussion and assignment recommendations, suggested quizzes on each chapter and a sample final exam.) The author intersperses his text with examples from his students’ projects and experiences. The foreword, for instance, is co-authored by a former student and his father, who explain the son’s decision not to join the father’s firm.
The text clearly shows that a considerable amount of thought went into the development of Stetson’s family business major; obviously, the program is very strong and a good choice for undergraduates contemplating a family business career. So it’s disconcerting that the book goes a bit overboard in touting the program (the teacher’s guide even suggests a quiz question promoting the school!). And as a manager, I would have preferred the author to recommend that the “personal statement” portion of a student portfolio open with a discussion of the skills and talents that the applicant could bring to a company, rather than “how this position fulfills your personal definition of success.” But these are minor criticisms. When Your Parents Sign the Paychecks abounds with keen insights and wise advice that will set young adults on the right path to a fulfilling career—wherever that path might lead them.
Study: IT function lags in family offices
In most family offices, the information technology function is not keeping pace with changes in today’s investing and reporting climates, according to a study conducted by Family Office Exchange (FOX), an independent adviser to wealthy families. The study’s more than 100 respondents included family offices and industry experts.
“Today, most offices lack adequate tools to oversee the expanding range of investments for a growing family and provide the integrated reporting necessary for guiding strategic decisions,” says the report’s executive summary. “Making matters worse, most offices stretch their existing technology platforms as long as possible because they recognize the tremendous strain on resources involved with a technology conversion. Yet this delay only promotes staff dependency on dated technology, ultimately increasing the time line and costs required to execute a change.”
Anna Nichols, a senior research consultant at FOX, says it’s important for family offices to view technology as a strategic investment rather than a back-office, line-item cost. An important consideration, she says, is, “Where is your company or family going to go, and how can you use technology to get you there?” Implementation costs should be viewed in the context of potential savings in labor and efficiencies, Nichols notes.
In addition, Nichols points out, it’s important to bear in mind that “To do a major technology upgrade takes 18 months from start to finish.” Care must be taken to ensure compatibility between new and current systems, she cautions. “It’s worth the time to survey everybody so you don’t end up with buyer’s remorse,” Nichols says. “You may discover things you weren’t aware of.”
Succession stories told in real time
Many family business owners who are grappling with succession issues find it helpful to listen to their peers discuss how they handled similar dilemmas. In her “Stories of Succession” seminars, family business consultant Kathy Wiseman of Working Systems Inc. goes one step further: She presents a series of video interviews with two business families conducted over a five-year period, demonstrating the changes in their viewpoints and circumstances as their succession journeys progress.
“The interviews are personal, but they’re not sob stories; they’re thoughtful conversations,” explains Wiseman, who collected 50 hours of interviews. She has advised both of the families who appear on the videos. “I feel as if I’m walking alongside them” as the succession process unfolds, she says. “There’s some real value in seeing the evolution of the process.”
In one set of interviews, a father and son express their differing viewpoints; in the other, a business leader describes his succession plan, which he adapts over time. Wiseman —who says she is now in the process of compiling similar interviews with a female business leader —asks the interviewees to reflect on what makes the process so difficult, what it means to be a leader, how they arrived at their succession decisions and other in-depth issues.
The power of the programs, Wiseman says, stems from the interviewees’ willingness to openly address topics that often are not discussed. “Their thinking process spurs thinking in the audience,” she says. “Seeing somebody else think through a very thorny problem has a motivational effect.” The businesspeople on the tapes don’t offer a template for program participants to follow, Wiseman explains; they simply describe their own thought processes. “They give you a hopefulness that you, too, can do this,” she says.
Wiseman offers “Stories of Succession” as a two-hour, half-day or full-day seminar. Contact her at (202) 244-6481 or kathy@aworkingsystem.com. Seminar booking and arrangements are handled through Bloom Consulting + Publishing, (703) 237-1144. For more information, see www.aworkingsystem.com.