Читать книгу Complete Family Wealth - Keith Whitaker, James Hughes E., James E. Hughes Jr. - Страница 40

Since family enterprises are always growing and changing, perhaps the most crucial challenge facing them is transition.

Within a family enterprise, transition can involve at least four possibly parallel sets of changes:

1 Family transition—the transition from one generation to the next, bringing with it new roles for family members and new methods of communication.

2 Ownership transition—the transition of ownership within the family (and sometimes to nonfamily member directors or trustees), which brings with it questions of how to do so efficiently and effectively; this transition often involves the problem of how to foster active ownership when most, if not all, of the family's financial capital is held in trust. In most families, 90 percent or more of the financial capital is held in trust by the third generation. This “trust wave” can help preserve financial capital, but it can be deadening to the family's qualitative capital.³

3 Board transition—if the family has a business board or a Family Council (as described in Chapter 20), this transition can impact the enterprise's strategic direction.

4 Management transition—this transition raises questions about the overall direction of the business or investment policy along with questions about selecting and evaluating appropriate managers.

Each of these transitions is crucial, and often several of them take place at the same time.

An added complication is that family enterprises require different types of leaders at different points in their development and transition. For example, the most famous leaders in business management are often “leaders in front.” Such leadership can be crucial in a crisis or in a new venture. Leaders in front have passion, vision, creativity, and a sense of their own calling as an inspiration to others.

The problem for family enterprises is that their long-term task is to enhance the flourishing of all members. In such cases, more effective leaders might be “leaders from behind,” who help all of the members of the enterprise find their own paths. While a leader in front may be essential to the creation of a family's financial capital or its preservation in a crisis, too much leading in front will retard the development of other family members and so eventually sap the family's qualitative capital.

Finally, family enterprises need to be aware of the different uses of transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leaders meet and overcome today's issues while transformational leaders meet and overcome the issues of the future. The former helps a family enterprise meet and eat for a day; the latter not only helps a family eat for its current lifetime but also plans for the enterprise to provide food for generations to come.

Navigating these different transitions and styles requires great care, patience, and communication. Again, the remaining chapters in this book and the tools they contain are designed to help you prepare for and manage this task of navigation. At this point, ask yourself these questions to orient yourself to what lies ahead:

 In your family enterprise, which of the circles gets the most attention: management, ownership, or family? Which gets the least?

 Which type of leadership—if any—prevails in your family enterprise now? Which seems most needed?

 Where is your family enterprise in the journey of educating active owners?