Innovation, Strategic Renewal and Loyalty

Listen to Gaia discuss three different roles one can take on in developing growth for the family business. While growth within a company often inspires change, it is important to understand that change can occur while remaining loyal to the company's original goals. In ensuring success for a family business, it is important to keep up with changes in the market while simultaneously being loyal to the original mission.

Within the same family group you have three opportunities. One, you can be the innovator, so you can bring a lot of change in the current companies, and you don’t necessarily have to be the jewel Steve Jobs (?) as everybody, I mean, it’s great, but innovation goes through not necessarily R&D only, but can be at many different levels. Second, you can venture within the family business, so you can have and work with the family capital, or not only, but you can bring -. And the other piece that is very important is the idea of strategic renewal, so companies that throughout the years, they have drastically changed from where they started with, but the idea of, if we want to be in business, we have to change. So first I would tell to these people, make sure you get it clear with your family that working in the family business doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to do exactly the same thing. The other concept that I love that goes hands in hands is the idea of loyalty. So we are raised with this, and this is a trait with families’ right, so we have to be loyal to the previous generation, so we think that if we do something different we are betraying the previous generation. Well, my suggestion in this case is to say we are loyal to the goal of keeping the company successful and the family together. How do I do that can be very different in every generation. So, all this said, I think it’s important to let people understand that there are different roles within the generation that you can play. We start when we have a founder that he or she does everything, so it’s the superhero, they get it all, so I understand the idea of starting, and I wouldn’t ever kill that aspiration or that idea, but I don’t even want to get away with the concept that if you are a do-er, if you are the one who does it all, then great, and if you’re not working in the company then you’re not equally important.