Insights into Family Business - Driving for Excellence

“The Golden Age for Family Managed Businesses is Now” A couple of my students of Family Managed Business once came and told me they wanted to go into the business of stationery. I was aghast: with all these years of management studies, research, and exposure to global business, you want to go into the business of stationery ? What will you do, manufacture paper clips? Have a chain of photocopier shops? Sell printing paper from office to office? I tried my best to dissuade them, but they were certain that this is what they wanted to do. I threw up my hands. Here I was thinking we had prepared them for Fortune 500 companies, and they wanted to compete against people who own 10ft by 10ft shops and sell erasers and pencils, one or two at a time, to neighborhood children! They were adamant, however, and I did not hear from them for almost two years. One day they came and met me again, and requested me to address a meeting of their staff. Why would I want to address a bunch of stat...

The changing face of the Family Managed Business “There is no Fun in the Business Anymore” One of the constant refrains we get to hear from heads of business families nowadays is that there is no ‘fun’ in the business anymore , or to put it more colloquially, ‘ Dhandhe mein majja nahin raha ’ . The se gentlemen, typically in their late 40’s or 50’s, talk nostalgically about the ‘good old days’ when there was fun, excitement, and a sense of adventure in the business which is just not there anymore. Now what do they mean when they say this? They are actually referring to all the problems they are facing in running their business, whether it is a ‘recession,’ not getting good employees, or clients not paying up on time etc. And what about the ‘good old days?’ Presumably, when there was ‘fun’ in the business, 20, 25 or 30 years ago, all these challenges wouldn’t have been there? No, they would have been present even then, very much so.In fact, the challenges would have been gr...