Family Business
Family business is often described as the oldest and most common model of economic organization. In the United States alone, there are roughly 5.5 million family businesses. Maybe more importantly, these businesses account for approximately 50% of the U.S. gross domestic product, they generate 60% of the country’s employment opportunities, and they create 78% of all new jobs.
Of course the benefit of owning and operating a family business is that you have immediate access to a multi-generational labor pool of family members and over time can create a lasting legacy that brings a great sense of accomplishment and pride to you and your family. In doing so, you can offer much more than basic employment opportunities to these family members. Instead, you can offer them tremendous wealth-generating potential and much greater financial rewards than is typical in other professional positions. The challenge, though, is that family businesses are often ripe with relational chaos and can create emotionally-charged environments that don’t exist in other business settings. No wonder it is so hard for these companies that make up the backbone of the U.S. economy – and global markets – to continue from generation to generation.
Did you know that only about 30% of all family businesses successfully continue from their first to their second-generation leaders. Moving to the third generation then drops even further to a mere 12% success rate. Maintaining a viable fourth generation – or beyond – family business only happens about 3% of the time. That’s frightening given that during that same time nearly 90% of those families’ wealth will disappear if they don’t succeed.
At chiefexeccoach, we have worked with countless second, third, and even fourth-generation family businesses over the years. Our consulting solutions focus on both the leadership challenges and relationship chaos that often impact families and their family businesses because we always want our clients to be one of those rare success stories.
- Family constitutions, Mission statements, and strategic plans to define the core values and operating guidelines for a family and its business ventures
- Board facilitation, Family Councils, and offsite retreats to create the infrastructure and provide the guidance needed to run a family business
- Family business succession planning to facilitate the handoff between generations and enable the transfer of management responsibilities – and wealth – from one leader to the next
- Executive coaching for individual family business leaders, including current owner/operators and especially their next-generation family members, to help them develop the critical skills and executive presence needed to act more “leader-like” and focus on what matters most in their family businesses
