The Road Ahead

The Road Ahead

When I retired for a second time, I flunked. I started working with old friends at Delaware Valley Family Business Center. They wanted me to work with them as they helped family businesses navigate the road ahead. Some thoughts:

1. Understanding the current state of your family business is crucial. To know where you want to go, you need to know where you are. This is why we delve into the family history, organization charts, financials, mission, vision, values, governance, decision-making processes, and more. We listen to owners, families, advisors, and employees. We aim to secure an agreement that the information we gather is as accurate as possible, as it forms the basis for our future planning.

2. Then, we look at the desired future for the firm and the individual family members, owners, and stakeholders. We test that view and the willingness to take the steps to get there. Often, there are different roads and destinations.

3. If we are at A and seek to get to B, we need to know what B looks like, its attributes, and the challenges and risks of creating B.

4. We know that having clarity of roles and accountability is essential to get on the road. We call it the 5 mountains—Family, Management, Advisors, Board, and Shareholders. Each has a clear role and accountability to the other 4 mountains. We also look to identify the 7 stakeholders in any family business, and I would argue any business. Employees, Family, both owners and employees, Customers, Vendors, Suppliers, Community, and Shareholders. All need to be served. This responsibility will make you a considerate and responsible business owner. Without customers, there is no business. Understanding their pain and fixing it is the critical value proposition.

5. Only then can the roadmap be created to get from A to B and test the requirements, organizational structure, risks, and opportunities to get there. With the plan in place, we strongly suggest you launch it when you are 80% ready and measure results and course corrections based on feedback and data from all the stakeholders. Growth needs to be nurtured and understood that it is a team sport. The road ahead can be a challenge. In my past life, I lived by one basic rule: “To go fast go alone, to go far, go together!”

Let’s go together. Pick your partners wisely, but pick.

The road will be a lot smoother.

www.themuddybootsblog.com

Dave Griffith is the senior advisor and coach at Delaware Valley Family Business Center. www.dvfbc.com linkedin.com/in/griffithd