Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Build your ownership team for long-term success: Family business retreat

Dr. Stephen R. Treat, facilitator
Long term competitiveness in a family business depends on the unity of the family ownership group. Investing time and effort in the shareholder team of the family business is a critical strategy issue.

To help you achieve your goals of family unity and long-term prosperity, the S. Dale High Center for Family Business at Elizabethtown College is offering a two-day retreat for family business owners on Thursday evening, October 13, and all day Friday, October 14, featuring expert facilitators trained in family business dynamics: Dr. Stephen R. Treat and Michael N. McGrann.

This retreat includes sessions to help you build ownership unity while defining the strategies and structures that are necessary for success across multiple generations. The outcome of your investment will be a stronger ownership team and critical tools for strengthening your business.


This seminar will provide you with tools to:
  • Manage "difficult conversations"
  • Improve your leadership of the family system
  • Develop stronger communication skills
  • Develop skills for next generation of entrepreneurs
  • Strengthen accountability and feedback throughout the organization
  • The retreat will also include two facilitated family meetings.
Dr. Stephen Treat is a senior therapist and an ordained minister who maintains his own clinical practice at the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia where he works with individuals, couples, and families. He has counseled companies such as Accenture, ASI, Cigna, as well as many family-business organizations. He received his doctorate from the Andover Newton Theological Seminary in 1976.

Michael N. McGrann is the executive director of the S. Dale High Center for Family Business. He has conducted seminars for family businesses, executive education programs, and personalized educational workshops for family groups around the world. He also provides consulting services to family businesses that need assistance with leadership transitions, developing accountability structures, empowering next generation teams, building unified shareholder groups, and identifying the unique characteristics of a family business that can produce a competitive advantage.

The retreat is on a cost-basis and is open to High Center members ($2,000 for up to four family shareholders) and non-member family businesses ($2,500 for up to four family shareholders). For the retreat schedule and other information, click on the link to the PDF. Or contact the S. Dale High Center for Family Business at Elizabethtown College by emailing fbc@etown.edu or phoning us at 717-361-1275. You may also visit our website at www.centerforfamilybusiness.org

Friday, August 19, 2011

Quote of the Week- Success, Failure, and Mark Cuban

It doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and neither should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because... All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. ~Mark Cuban

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Family Businesses Need to Care for their Ownership Group to Stay On Top


by Mike McGrann, Executive Director, The S. Dale High Center for Family Business

Family meetings can have enormous impact
on the long-term success of a family business



Leaders of publicly traded companies spend up to 50% of their time dealing with Wall Street analysts and market expectations in order to please their shareholders. This often leads to a short-term perspective and over-emphasis on quarterly vs. long-term results. One of the advantages family businesses have over publicly traded firms is that they don't face this kind of short-term pressure.

However, I can tell you from experience that one of the weaknesses of family firms is that they often don’t spend enough time focused on their shareholder groups.

Things couldn't be simpler when the founding entrepreneur is also the Chairman of the Board and the sole shareholder. Yet when family firms become multi-generational, the leadership model of the founding entrepreneur no longer works. A shareholder group comprised of multiple family members, multiple family branches, even multiple generations requires proactive management… if the family wishes to remain a family business. Ultimately, it is the unity of the family shareholder group that determines the long-term success of a family firm.

One of the most powerful tools for building this ownership unity is a family meeting. In fact, the simple act of holding a family meeting in which information is shared and ideas are considered has an enormous impact on the family. Our research shows that family meetings lead to higher levels of trust and satisfaction, a sense that we share beliefs, overall perceptions of agreement, more positive views of the future, and lower perceptions of risk.

This last impact can be particularly powerful – when a shareholder’s views their stock as less risky, they implicitly require a lower return on capital… thus the firms cost of capital declines... and the opportunity for higher overall return on equity exists.

If the prospect of a family meeting is a little daunting, consider that you really only need focus on these big picture issues:

a) what are the goals of the family and what are the values that should be reflected in the business;
b) how are we creating accountability for our management team;
c) what kind of performance do we expect from this business (at a big picture level…);
d) how should the family interact with the business (is working in the business an entitlement or an opportunity?)

Mike's Bottom Line: Your family business may be the furthest thing from a publicly traded company. But if you treat your ownership group with equal or greater regard than CEO's, you'll gain the dividends of a stronger company.

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