Untangling family relationships is necessary for a family business to run effectively and survive.

Untangling Family Relationships

We help the leadership of family businesses manage the family member's attitude toward the business and the persons who run and control the business.

There seems to be a certain pattern in the work and subsequently: personal relationships between the founder (father) and the President and CEO (son) of the family business. The graph below portrays a typical pattern of such relationships. When the father is in his 40's and the son is 17-23 years old, the relationships are relatively problematic (partly a typical feature of late adolescence). In the next decade the relationships between these two are relatively harmonious. However, when the father is in his 60's and the son is in his late 30's – early 40's, the relationships tend to be troublesome again.

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Why are interpersonal relationships in family businesses so important?

The diagram below shows the network of interpersonal relationships within a single-family business. It reflects the involvement of two generations. The first is the founder and his spouse. The second generation adds the founders' children, the one that becomes the president and CEO, the ones that work in the business (inside), the ones that do not work in the business (outside), as well as cousins that do not work in the business but are shareholders and their spouses.

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Ordinarily, the relationships between these members vis-a-vis the business are amicable (represented by the gray arrows). But potentially, each of these relationships can become difficult and problematic. The red arrows mark the ones most susceptible to interpersonal conflicts. The complexity of this interpersonal relationship network requires constant vigilance and nurturing.

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