Moving a Family Business Beyond the Founder’s Vision

Many entrepreneurs generate a huge amount of wealth that they want to pass on to their children and grandchildren. They are not yet a family business, but they want to become one. They want to see the wealth used wisely, and their business and investments to continue to add value. But the mindset that led to their success often undermines how open they are to the changes needed to continue business into a second generation. It’s the next-generation dilemma: How do succeeding generations preserve the founder’s legacy and continue to build a thriving family enterprise?

Business founders often fall into common traps that inhibit their continued success:

• They become so confident in their own superpowers that they stop listening to others.
• They feel that they are the only one who knows how to run the business, so they are not willing to step down or let go.
• They expect growth to continue and do not anticipate major change.
• They want to find a successor just like them, who will run the business like they did.
• They seek advisors, executives, and even family members who do not challenge them.
• They want their children to repeat their journey of “making it on their own”.
• They assume that being ready for the future is to continue things as they were, because, after all, they have been hugely successful.

This poses a huge problem for members of the next generation, who often see that major business changes are needed. While the elders have been growing the business, the rising generation has often been learning, traveling, working for other businesses, discovering new opportunities and possibilities, and taking active steps to prepare themselves to step into the business. They have much to offer, but founder behavior can be frustrating and can lead them to feel that their voice is not taken seriously. When they clearly see the need for innovation, how do they overcome their elder’s avoidance and reluctance?

As an example, a family I worked with had developed a huge real estate portfolio under the leadership of their now 80-year-old entrepreneurial father. Four of his seven offspring, in their 40s and 50s, worked in the business, but did not feel they were able to talk about new directions, while others worked elsewhere, sometimes in related fields. They knew the business, and their relationships, needed work. They wanted to meet to consider how they would work together after their father passed, but he gave them the message that they should not. Were they children, who had to obey their powerful and successful father? They decided to meet anyway and informed their father. They considered renewing the business, new acquisitions, how much liquidity they wanted in their lives, environmental concerns, and the impact of their buildings on their small city. They were content to wait for their father to pass, but they wanted to prepare for the major changes they felt were needed in how they did business.

I interviewed older and younger family member from 100 large, global family enterprises that thrived past their third generations, asking them: “What did you do to overcome these founder tendencies? How did you set the business on a new course?” The successful families understood that their company would not just continue to grow, so they had to consider whether it was time to sell the legacy business or start new ventures. The elders may not have been ready, willing, or able to do this, but it had to happen. Cross-generational success depends on first overcoming this obstacle.

How could they accomplish this? These successful enterprises had a unique resource — one that does not exist in non-family businesses: their rising generation. This generation — that grew up in the shadow of the founder and expects to inherit ownership and leadership — often has no formal power, but they do have moral power and influence. They typically find ways to step up and persuade the elders, and the family, to change.

When I asked these families who was responsible for their most consequential changes, they reported that two-thirds of the changes originated from the members of rising generations, who took initiative and garnered the support of their parents. Many families reported that a major shift in their family culture took place in their second or third generation, a transition from success at a single business to a multi-faceted collaboration that included diversification, significant innovation, and redefinition of the business. Typically, the family continued as a shared entity, but the business itself took a very different form. This huge shift came not from above, but largely at the initiation of the younger generation.

To sustain a long-term family enterprise, it’s clear that having a founder who builds a great business is only the first step. Successful families need a second transformation, when the second and third generation redefine the business and develop new opportunities. Unlike the founding generation, their reality is that they need to cooperate and develop a structure to work together to seek and develop multiple opportunities. The challenges that come with doing so are often not fully understood by the founder, so successive generations need to either gain the support of the first-generation owner or develop on their own to prepare for their succession.

My research found that the rising generation typically did not wait for permission; they took initiative. After all, it was not a problem for the founder, it was their problem: How could they continue the legacy they inherited? They got together and acted, stewarding major changes. As millennials or members of Gen Z, they grew up in a digital and connected world, receiving an education that was far more extensive than their elders. They looked to the future and shared concerns about what needed to change in their business, and how the family could work together to enact the changes they saw as necessary.

Three structural innovations, in particular, enabled their shift from simply continuing what had been successful in the past, to preparing and looking ahead for how to meet future challenges:

Active engagement with the business.

Mentoring and development programs, with clear criteria for governance roles.

The creation of a family bank.

To read the full article, click here.

Originally published on HBR.org, 21 September 2022.