Over the past few years, more family-firm leaders have been turning to executive-education courses tailored to their needs. Instead of just teaching the best way to run a business, the courses focus on overcoming the unique obstacles that family ties can pose—such as succession planning and poor communication among relatives.
Currently, the Family Firm Institute lists 182 schools offering family-business courses, including two dozen targeted executive-education programs throughout the world. The list of educational offerings has increased by about 20% in the past five years.
Several company executives are encouraged to attend at the same time, and a large part of the courses involves getting everyone at the company on the same page, often through team exercises like role playing. The instructors act partly as professors and partly as counselors, giving advice on navigating current family conflicts as they teach business theory.
Having one sibling promoted over another, say, may elicit a more emotional reaction than it would in a business that's not family-owned. So companies and families are encouraged to set up objective processes they must follow for all decisions, to eliminate the perception of bias.
Learning to listen to each other:
Discussions can get heated, the same way they would around a family dining-room table. Sometimes family members storm out of the room, and tears are not uncommon.
A look at some of the top sources of friction in family businesses includes the percentage of company leaders who said these cause "some" or "a lot" of tension as surveyed by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.US in 2010 & 2011:
30% Discussions about future strategy
27% Performance of family members actively involved in the business
22% Decisions about reinvesting profits vs. paying dividends
19% Decisions about who can and can't work in the business
18% Setting of remuneration for family members actively involved in the business
15% The role in-laws should or should not play in the business
13% Failure of family members actively involved in the business to consult the wide family on key issues.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2011