Professionalising A Family-Run Business

By Ravi Wazir WE'RE DOING well. We’d like to grow, change things around a bit, improve our systems, train our people, bring some professionals on-board. But... we’re finding that hard to do!’ World over, the owners of almost any kind of family-run business echo such thoughts when they’d like to expand, re-engineer, bequeath or sell their business, or simply free up their time to retire or do other things. Professionalising a family-run business is certainly hard, but here’s how you can do it. Get your act together internally first 1. Agree on the individual responsibilities of each family member and the fundamental direction of the business, so as to speak with one voice. 2. Decide on whether your business needs a ’Change Agent’, and what his focus areas, deliverables and time-frames might be. 3. Commit to truly ’allow’ this outsider inside your business for the greater good and know your own limitations since the change advised may even mean ’you’. The Right Change Agent Your business may need a CEO, a consultant, or any other sort of executive hired on an interim or a permanent basis to lead the change you require. Globally, interim executive tenures range from 3 months to 3 years... not very different from permanent CXOs these days, and often even more apt for your business. Your Change Agent should: ’ Accept the present avatar of your business. ’ Understand what is expected of him. ’ Have an entrepreneurial resilience and comfort with ambiguity. ’ Have enough industry knowledge to chart out a roadmap. ’ Communicate objectively all around despite the people dynamic challenges. ’ Have an even temperament that gives your team, family and you comfort. Finding someone with all these qualities is a tall order and therefore it’s best to think through which of these are necessary and which are desirable in your candidate. Social networks provide great platforms to connect with diverse groups through whom you could find the person you seek. Your approach towards a Change Agent Once on-board, do your very best to retain the executive and build trust by making each interaction with him a good one. ’ Convey to him the scope of responsibility and decision-making of each family member whom he will report into. ’ Share your concerns about problematic people and pain points of the business. ’ Express what you are unsure about. ’ Realise that he may see things very differently from your team and you. ’ Let go of past and preconceived notions to give him a fair chance. Professionalising a family business usually involves working on people and processes and therefore... mindsets. An organization’s mindset is made up of both individual and collective voices that rule decisions. Pay attention to which aspects of your organization’s mindset might be blocking its development. An organization’s beliefs and habits are usually a matter of its inheritance, its experiences, its hidden agendas and biases. Acknowledging and changing them requires an extraordinary amount of commitment, time and rigour. Recognise that this is what your Change Agent is up against. Remember he is here to complement you and your team in fulfilling your business goals. Holding him individually accountable is fine, but if it leads to finger pointing, it subverts your collaboration with him and defeats the very purpose of the association. In the event of conflict between him and an old team member, establish the facts before taking sides. Objectivity simply means taking the side of whichever suggestion best serves the business’ interests. Declining anyone’s suggestion must be done inclusively... to encourage an enduring relationship with both old and new team members. If you often find non-alignment in your thoughts and that of your change agent, revisit your goals with him and if necessary also the continuance of his services. Keep in mind that your true purpose in hiring him is to nurture your family business by giving it whatever it needs; so that it can in turn give you what you all need. You will be doing your business a great disservice if you allow circumstances or lack of patience to get in the way of being its true guardian. Finally, to move from where you’re at, to where you need to be. You must switch your own mindset from management mode to leadership mode. As Steven Covey points out, ’Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.’ The author is a hospitality business consultant and has written’-Restaurant Startup: A Practical Guide’.