How Do You Innovate in a Family Business Where the Older Generation is in Charge?

Listen to Scott Carr talk about introducing new technology into the family business, and making sure everyone is comfortable with changes and advancements.

What I’ve quickly realized is based on my previous answer, don’t try to shove it down their throats. It doesn’t work very well. So, you really need to start by educating them, getting them interested in whatever you want to do, and show them the logic behind whatever you want to do. For example a website, the individual who’s in charge of the business needs to feel comfortable with the website, they need to understand the basics behind a website, what is a website, why are people using a website. My father has recently discovered SIRI, who is his new best friend, so I think that that’s been kind of a transition to realizing what technology can do, and what it can also do for businesses. So get them comfortable with whatever change that needs to happen, and then start to take the change step by step. I think whatever you’re doing, figure out what the end result is and split it up into steps and make them comfortable with each step.