Natural causes
No matter how you or I may want to run our business, there are some natural laws that, sooner or later, whether we like it or not, simply have to be obeyed.I was asked to work with a family business recently where the issues were not so much with the business model or the quality of the products or services. It was all to do with the feuding and rivalry between the two sisters and the brother that had inherited the business from their father. With father having passed away recently it seemed to me like the leadership of some forty staff was in freefall.
Despite being equal shareholders, one of the sisters wanted to correspond with me directly but without copying in her sibling directors. I replied to her very first email and copied the other two in. Indignantly she replied that the business wouldn’t have any problems “if the other two would just listen to me”.
The more open and honest transactions can be in business the better it is for the organisation itself and for the relationships between the people running the business.
In family businesses it may mean trying to change the habits of a lifetime but everyone will be a winner in the end.
Labels: Dealing with conflict in family businesses
posted by Tim @ 2:36 AM
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