Family Business Employment Policy — General Conditions

There are several general conditions that a family business must consider before employing a family member. Come inside and see the criteria for growing your family business with members of your family.

Family Business Employment Policy: Individuation

This discussion relates to the second half of the Philosophy section developed by the Wilson family. As you review the elements below, I encourage you to think about the discussions the family must have had in the process of arriving at the statement.

By |2020-06-25T08:07:51-06:00June 1st, 2018|Categories: Articles, Family Relationships, Family Values, General, Managing Family Business|

Part Two: Family Business Employment Policy: Philosophy

This discussion relates to the second half of the Philosophy section developed by the Wilson family. As you review the elements below, I encourage you to think about the discussions the family must have had in the process of arriving at the statement.

By |2020-06-25T08:08:10-06:00May 15th, 2018|Categories: Articles, Family Relationships, Family Values, General, Managing Family Business|

Part One: Family Business Employment Policy: Philosophy

The process of building this policy required a great deal of discussion among the Wilson family. They needed to articulate who they were and what they stood for, and then they had to craft a statement that would work for them.

By |2020-06-25T08:08:29-06:00May 1st, 2018|Categories: Articles, Family Relationships, Family Values, General, Managing Family Business|

Who Do You Trust?

David Bork, renowned Consultant of Family Business Matters, shares insight on how to build trust within a family in order to improve the success of the family business. Without trust, success of a family business will be difficult to achieve. Check out "Who Do You Trust?" from David Bork and the Family Business Matters Consulting Team today!

By |2020-06-25T08:08:43-06:00April 16th, 2018|Categories: Uncategorized|

Family Business Employment Policy: “The Rules of Engagement“

Every game, including the “Game of Life,“ has rules of engagement. Family businesses are best served when they clearly define the terms and conditions of employment for family members and for non-family.

When you are born into your family, you are accepted unconditionally. The love of your family is unconditional. At least, that is the way it should be.

Employment in a business is different from membership in a family. Regardless of the ownership structure, all businesses require competent employees in every position. Acceptance in the business must be conditional, based on competence and the ability to produce and perform at a consistently high level. If a person is less than competent, they simply will not meet that standard.

This blog is the first in a series on Family Business Employment policy.

What follows is the first blog in the series. My focus is the theory behind each section of the employment policy. This policy is drawn from an actual policy designed for a real company. The universal principles are excellent and applicable to all family businesses. This policy was developed in the mid 1980s and the principles underlying it are the “gold standard“ of all family employment policies. Any family business policy worth its salt will have the components of this policy. The policy can be read in full at:
https://www.familybusinessmatters.consulting/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/familybusiness.pdf

The policy begins with a statement of purpose, establishing the fundamental reason for the policy:

To remove the ambiguity about the matter.

“The purpose of this policy is to define the procedures, process and criteria that will govern how the Wilson family lineal descendants and/or their spouses enter and exit the family company’s employ. (Note the clarity of including spouses as employees. Some families do not permit this.)

This employment policy is intended to remove the ambiguity […]

By |2020-06-25T08:09:09-06:00April 1st, 2018|Categories: Articles, General, Managing Family Business|

Family Business Matters Presents “The Bork Process”

Maldonado Family Office
Presents

“The Bork Processâ„¢“

About “The Bork Process” Workshop

David Bork and the Family Business Matters Consulting Team, together with the GEM Family Office, are proud to offer a unique workshop on The Bork Processâ„¢. This program is the product of David’s accumulated wisdom from 50 years of expertise working with over 450 family businesses all over the world.

The Bork Processâ„¢ is grounded in the Four Pillars of Family Business: Alignment, Boundaries, Communication and Competency. These pillars are imperative for a resilient family business, affecting organizational health, management function, and personal performance.

This  2-day workshop is intended to be a deep dive into some of the BEST international family business practices. The Bork Process Team strives to teach each person in the family, and company, to understand and use essential core skills for increasing organizational health and performance. This stellar, cutting-edge seminar is recommended for:

  • Family members working in their family’s office.
  • Family members whose families have family offices.
  • Non-family executives in family offices.

Workshop Details

Dates: April 12-13, 2018
Venue: Dorissa Building, Miami Biennale Space, 2751 N Miami Ave., Miami, FL 33127
Deadline: RSVP before April 2, 2018 to Samuel Maldonado, Family Business Matters Associate, sam@fambizmatters.com
Pricing: We are offering this unique and transformational experience at the special price of:

  • $400.00 for individual participants
  • $350.00 per person, if 2 or more members of the same family participate together

We want to encourage the participation of several members of the same family in this workshop in order to create an open dialogue and stimulate the exchange of ideas about the FB challenges. Participation of multiple family members will increase the impact this workshop can have on your family and business, and improve the possibility for implementation within your Family Business.

Workshop Program

Thursday, April 12

TIME
By |2020-06-25T08:09:31-06:00January 26th, 2018|Categories: Announcement, Speaker|

Leading the Way: Europe’s First Executive MBA for Family Business

Leading the Way: Europe’s First Executive MBA for Family Business LeadersHave you heard about Europe’s first Executive MBA for family business leaders? Not only it is the first-of-its-kind degree program in Europe, but it is also the only Family Business MBA that has been accredited by the Association of MBAs (AMBA), the prestigious executive MBA accreditation group.

EDHEC Business School now offers the Family Business Global Executive MBA Program.

The students come from different cultural backgrounds, covering all continents, as diverse as Australia, Tanzania, Egypt, Finland, Venezuela, France, Oman, or Reunion Island. They are all family business members with active experience in their businesses and will become the future leaders.

Students join the program to deepen their knowledge and support their family business as future leaders on key challenges including management, family dynamics, leadership, and governance.

How does it work?

The program is held for 15 months with 10 weeks of physical contact hours spread across the EDHEC business school campus and partnering locations, including Paris, Lille, Nice, London, Singapore, Boston and Palo Alto. This allows a truly enriching experience with world-class professors and speakers balancing the local and international dimensions of the class locations.

Classes are held in diverse formats ranging from classical lectures to workshops, experiential learning, family business visits, expert testimonies and coaching sessions.

Whom does it serve?

The Family Business Global Executive MBA (EMBA) is intended for family business future leaders who want to embark on a transformational learning journey to build their legitimacy in the family business, contribute to maintaining family cohesion and responsible ownership practices and business sustainability.

Both members of the family controlling the business and outsiders working in key positions in the family business are eligible for the program.

How can I learn more?

For more information, you can click through to

David Bork Writes Forward for MAPS for Men Book, a Must-Have Resource for any Family Business

David Bork Writes Forward for MAPS for Men BookDavid Bork is proud to have contributed the forward for the book, MAPS for Men: A Guide for Fathers and Sons and Family Businesses.

New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio show host Dave Ramsey calls this important book “a must-have resource for any and every family business.”

In his forward for MAPS for Men, David Bork, founder and CEO of Family Business Matters, writes: “These concepts help fathers and sons reframe their relationship into something that is more meaningful and helpful in meeting their goals, rather than repeating generational patterns.“

David recommends this book to fathers and sons seeking to better understand their personal and professional relationship.

Full text of MAPS for Men Forward by David Bork

In the interest of full disclosure, Edgell Franklin Pyles has been a good friend for more than twenty-five years, and we share a large community of interests. In the early 90s, we explored together the works of Robert Moore, James Millman, Robert Bly, and others. I met both Robert Moore and Robert Bly at a retreat in Aspen, Colorado, organized and sponsored by Edgell.

This was called the men’s movement, and we were excited about it because it sought to further define what it meant to be a man at the end of the twentieth century. It was grounded in Jungian psychology, and while well researched and articulated, it could be theoretical and esoteric. Our explorations of this work produced a practical approach and we have been on parallel, but different, paths.

We were interested in understanding the dynamics that take place between fathers and sons at both the personal and professional level. Our first step was to comprehend and appreciate the relationship we had with our […]

Top Ten Family Business Facts | Fact #2: The Cluster Model Helps Capture the Evolution of Your Family Business Over Time

cluster-modelTraditionally, family businesses are described as constituent of three overlapping circles:

1) the family,

2) the business, and

3) the ownership (Gersick, Davis, McCollom Hampton, & Lansberg, 1997; Tagiuri & Davis, 1996).

Recently, Michael-Tsabari, Labaki, & Zachary (2014) suggested the Cluster Model to update the two and three-circle models by providing a more detailed picture of the circles’ evolution over time.

While the original bivalent two-circle model appropriately describes a family that owns a firm (Tagiuri & Davis, 1996), Michael-Tsabari et al. (2014)’s study addresses the inaccuracies of the circle models when it comes to describing a family that owns more than one firm and suggests a more detailed perspective allowing to include in the analysis the different firms that the family owns to different extents.

Lesson #2: Putting on the lenses of the Cluster Model might help you better capture the evolution of your family business over time both in terms of the descendants driving this evolution and its outcomes.

Wondering what the Cluster Model means for you and your family business? Do you need some guidance on seeing your family business through this lens? Contact a Family Business Matters consultant today. Through conferences, continuing education programs, family business retreats, speaking engagements and private family business consulting services, Family Business Matters has assisted more than 450 family-owned businesses around the world chart their way through family business issues of all shapes and sizes.

This post is the second in a series by Rania Labaki highlighting the Top Ten Family Business Facts. To view the previous post in this series, follow this link. To review the full Top Ten Family Business Facts and to access a list of original resources, please visit our Family Business Facts page.


Rania Labaki — Author Bio

Rania Labaki