Case Study: Aligning on What We Value
How should your family create its Owner Strategy statement? In this View from the Owner Room episode, Banyan’s editorial director Karen Dillon sits down with a third generation family owner and Director of E-Commerce of Big Y Foods to discuss the process they went through to create their Owner Strategy statement, how they use it, and how process benefitted the family in ways he didn’t expect.
Time Stamps and Key Takeaways from the video are below.
Time Stamps:
[0:56] Christian describes his family business and his role in it
[3:39] He describes what the process actually looked like, starting with discussing their current thinking or strategies for each point of the Owner Strategy triangle —growth, liquidity, and control—and what the dynamics were like between the second and third generation as they were going through this process.
[8:39] Christian shares how the process helped his family understand each other and the business better.
[10:57] Christian explains logistically what the process looked like in the working groups to get to an agreed upon, written Owner Strategy.
[15:58] He describes how the owners use their Owner Strategy statement now in their ownership and in their work.
Key Takeaways:
- The simplicity of the Owner Strategy triangle framework helped to have clear conversations and a shared dialogue within the family during and after writing the Owner Strategy statement.
- Having conversations about what value they bring to the business and what they wanted helped to open communication and strengthen relationships between family members and generations.
- The Owner Strategy statement is a living document. It will never be finished, but it is something that can be revisited in new generations and to check in to see if the family is living up to what value they bring to the business.
- The value of getting to an Owner Strategy statement is in the journey of creating it. Although they continually refer to the document, it is the conversations, understandings, and shared vocabulary they had along the way that sticks with them day-to-day.
- Going through the Owner Strategy process is best done proactively, before you are facing a crisis. And it is a valuable process for all family owners to go through.