Family
Volume 5 Issue 1
Family Enterprise Center A learning community ser ving the needs of the family in business.
Dave Rober tson Director
Phone:
479-788-7931
Email:
dave.robertson@uafs.edu
Website:
uafs.edu/cob/fec
Mailing Address:
Family Enterprise Center University of Arkansas - Fort Smith 5210 Grand Ave. P.O. Box 3649 Fort Smith, AR 72913-3649
Location:
Boreham Library Room 212 Corner of Grand Avenue and Waldron Road
The mission of the Family Enterprise Center is to be an educational and informational resource center for family and closely held businesses. We want to develop long-term relationships that support transgenerational leadership and wealth creation in families.
Matters Newsletter of the FEC
Director’s Message One of my favorite topics for peer group meetings is goal setting. At the beginning of each year I typically bring up the subject to a chorus of moans and groans. For some reason, not everybody likes setting goals. This year something new occurred to me regarding setting individual goals within the family business environment. It occurred to me how intertwined each participant’s goals are with the goals of others in the family business. This may have been obvious to you, but the impact of this interconnectedness was new to me and something that is worth talking about. I guess the issues that make setting short-term goals difficult within the family business are the same ones that make succession planning (long-term goals) difficult: Lack of communication from one generation to the next, a continually changing family dynamic and multiple individuals to consider. The outgoing generation has to make plans that will affect the succeeding generation. Of course the process depends greatly on what the next generation’s plans are. Members of the next generation have plenty of options, and they need time to explore and consider the options and determine what is best. So, things rock along and life happens and succession planning gets put on the back burner until the dust settles, the picture gets a little clearer. This scenario sounds reasonable and I’m sure that it happens all the time. The conflict seems to come when one side or the other starts feeling pressure to make decisions and they are not fully informed as to the other side’s goals. The succeeding generation has questions like these: Is there a place for me in the family business? What are the expectations for me? Do I need to prove myself or obtain some level of expertise? Should I be making other plans? The outgoing generation has questions too: Do my children want to work in the family business? Do they expect a position or do they have other plans? One of the goals I have for the FEC is to create opportunities to kick-start the planning process for our member families. We strive to find creative ways to help initiate the discussion or to help motivate the players to begin the planning process. Communication is key. So, my challenge to you is to initiate a conversation with your family about goals. You don’t have to resolve anything right away but you should at least communicate that you are open to talking about individual goals. Go easy and don’t expect to get everything resolved immediately. But do keep the lines of communication open.