Discussing Your Role in the Family Business

Listen to Gaia explain the importance of clarifying the role of the rising generation within the business. While the successor may have different ideas for the company, it is still possible to maintain the original vision of the founder. This is important in helping create a seamless transition to the next generation and maintaining the success of the business.

To the next gen, what I tell them is, ok, make sure you get it right with your family, so it requires a lot of communication about, are you thinking to give me? Or do I have to earn this company? And I have to keep it as it is? Because that might be an option, but there might be others. And then if they want to start their own company, there are possibilities of starting within the family group. I would suggest to make sure that they avoid the entitlement piece and they know for sure, because that goes back to the self-confidence and the abilities to mature and become more independent, to be strong as individuals. So I think my point with all this is to, let’s not work on general assumption that the hero is the entrepreneur that starts the business and everything else I cannot be happy. That being true, what can I do, and is there room for working within my family. And otherwise, as long as it’s the responsible choice, I think the other piece is to kind of understand that it might be the dream and the vision of the founder, it might not be necessarily the dream and vision of the successor. And there are ways to keep that in the family.