Partnering with the Network of Family Businesses

by Gale Martin, Director of Marketing, S. Dale High Center for Family Business

A longtime professional associate of the S. Dale High Center and friend to family businesses, Dr. Steven K. Moyer has created an exclusive online network connecting family business owners that premiered earlier this year. The Network of Family Business (NOFB) was developed to meet family business owners' limited time and schedules, allowing them to stay on top of trends while building their family legacies.

This partnership gives our members access to their content--online seminars and educational resources--a complimentary service that meshes well with our face-to-face seminars, intimate forums, and other programming.

A few weeks ago, I sampled one of NOFB's virtual learning seminars conducted by family business expert, Dr. Steve McClure called "Critical Issues for Succession Planning in the Family Business." Dr. McClure's slides were illuminating and chock full of content.

Here are just some of the key learnings of interest to family businesses I gained from this seminar:

Is this what your leadership transition looks like?

Key Learning: Succession needs to be managed.


The handoff of a family business is always a source of conflict and is rarely effectively paced, usually happening too fast or not fast enough. Without proper planning, the typical succession scenario can devolve into two buffalo butting heads, ramping up rivalries between the successor and the generation that's stepping down, all of which is highly injurious to stakeholder confidence.


Key Learning: Leadership Transitions should take longer and be more deliberate.
Handing off a business really isn't like passing a baton because we expect that transition to be instantaneous. Handoff needs to be a gradual and progressive transition. A more realistic model regarding leadership transition is needed. Sometimes it can be a 15-year process and will have ups and downs during that time, requiring continual adjustment. Typically, the more that the junior generation says things like, "When are you leaving, Dad?" the more Dad digs in his heels.

Key Learning: Both generations have to make an effort; both contribute to the success of the leadership transition.

One thing that is needed is a different point of view from the successor generation. The successor needs to examine how he or she can be an effective leader in their generation. Focus on learning how to deal and work with the outgoing senior executive. At the same time, the outgoing generation would be wise to consider that letting go of the business doesn't mean leaving. Executives who are most successful at leadership transitions are those who focus not on leaving but on going on to something else.



Key Learning: Put successors to work
on a common task.

 In preparing for a leadership transition, why not give the successor generation a task to complete? Dr. McClure advised putting siblings and cousins together and require them to complete an important task. Also, senior executives may need to provide mentors for those who'll be leading the company in the future. Executive coaches are becoming popular. Forums (like the affinity groups offered by the S. Dale High Center) can be extremely effective in growing the next generation of business leaders.

Those were just a few of the valuable learning points from NOFB's October seminar. For the rest of the presentation, NOFB makes archived versions available--just one of the benefits of the S. Dale High Center's new partnership with the Network of Family Businesses.