In today’s ever so challenging business environment small business cannot afford any complacency or sluggish behavior. The famous statement credited to Lou Holtz, “if you’re not growing you’re dying” is very true and real in the small business context. The focus on business strength and growth must be constant and undiverted.
Every article written about family business dynamics stresses on the main peculiarity of family business, that being the intertwining of family issues with business activity, both on and off the workplace. This is indeed true, and in a more closely knit family context like that of Malta, this element gets even more accentuated and managing such conflicts and agendas diverts energy away from the real purpose of the business. Effort, time and resources should not be diverted from the main focus to mitigate damage resulting from the interpersonal relationships between family members or business partners.
The prevalent ‘solution’ recommended by the majority of writers and advisors is the ‘professionalisation’ of the family business – the process of getting the business ‘governed’, via the inclusion of professional non-family members at the higher levels of management or at board level.
But, I am sure that while you (the directly interested party) are reading this you are thinking – “Wait, but my business is not yet at a stage where it can afford the costs of professional people.” True, especially when the market you operate in is small to the extent that it may not permit the necessary growth. I also allow myself to add a few other thoughts – and what if you do engage the professionals? Will they stay on through the whole lengthy process? Will they find the right compatibility/chemistry with the family members?
You are right in this line of thought, but not because professionalisation is not the solution, indeed it is. Through years of direct involvement with family business leaders, I have learnt that albeit the transition to professional management is inevitable to guarantee long term success, there is one important step that precedes the professionalisation stage, and that is the stage where the family business leaders work on developing themselves, especially their fundamental working values – a self-development process that will pave the way for eventual professionalisation.
In this series of blog posts I wish to share with you the first-hand experiences accumulated over years of assisting family and/or owner-managed businesses, with a particular focus on the Maltese context, and my intention is to guide you through a realization process – that you can help yourself achieve a lot if you primarily focus on dedicating time to develop yourself and your family members first and foremost.
Topics will range from simple ways to improve the outcome of your family board meetings, easy procedures to achieve the desired vision for your family business, to what I have labelled as the L.I.F.E. values, a set of fundamental values for self-development and long-term sustainability of your family business.