What is Family Business Consulting?
Family Business Consulting is a specialized form of consulting that focuses on helping families navigate the unique challenges of running a business together. Unlike other businesses, family businesses have an added layer of complexity as they involve the dynamic of numerous family relationships.
Family Business Consulting helps families improve communication, build trust, and create a clear governance structure to ensure that the business runs smoothly. The consultant often acts as the neutral third party, helping to facilitate difficult conversations and working with families to develop long-term plans.
Ultimately, Family Business Consulting provides families with the tools they need to achieve both personal and business success.
Main Services
1. Sucession Planning
The most important factor is a well thought out succession plan. This will give stability to the management without any challenges and tension during the transition period.
2.Organizing & Educating The Family
The family is the pivot around which everything revolves and the business’s biggest asset. The most important tool is family meetings. This creates opportunities to establish agreement on key business issues. Clear definition of roles and tasks must be agreed upon.
3. Alignment of Ownership
Legally structuring business ownership within the family.
4.Prepare the next Generation
Educate and preparing family members to successfully take over management and ownership positions.
5. Communication & conflict resolution
Poor communication can be the underlying of any family business and can easily damage family life. The worst type of communication is no communication at all. Conflict can never be avoided. It is important to develop clear guidelines of how to deal with conflict to ensure a prosperous and successful business.
3. Strategic Planning
Business strategic planning is a shared approach of how the business will function in the future as in the present. Important issues need to be identified. Goals need to be set together with an action plan. Processes need to be put in place to review the effectiveness of the business tactics and guidelines to determine if procedures should be changed.
7. Policy
Policy means to have a clear set of rules which are agreed upon and are to be followed by the family when conflict and sensitive situation arise.
Family Exit & Entry
Compensation and Performance
Roles & Responsibilities
Sibling code of Conduct
Communication
Leadership
Topics I Discuss
1.Family Exit & Entry
Criteria that explains the employment of family and participation in family meetings, councils and booked meeting important. To allow for graceful exits where possible.
2. Compensation and performance
Create a policy that identifies the basis of salary, perks and promotions as well as the consequences of poor or lack of performance.
3. Roles & Responsibilities
This outlines the decision-making process for family members, management, owners and directors. This creates unity and give everyone a voice and allow environment for well-informed and effective decisions.
4. Sibling relationships
A policy on values, commitment, expectations, and communication.
5. Communication
How can the family be heard? How are family members being informed? What information is kept confidential?
6. Leadership
Create a policy where successors must earn the right to become the business leader.