Common Causes of Family Business Conflict & What to Do About Them.
Family Business Mediation Video No 31: Decision Making: Family & Business.
By Jon Kenfield. Solutionist.
• Many business families, even large and sophisticated ones, don’t have any coherent form of problem solving or decision making process. Up to a point, decisions can be made autocratically, as they always have been, without concern for scrutiny or opposition. Beyond a tipping point, this no longer works, and family members, and/or employees, object to decisions being made without their input, or insist on decisions being made with their input.
• This is often seen as a challenge. It may be accepted willingly, opposed violently, or anything in between.
• Strategic decisions are big decisions that may have a major impact on the family and/or the business.
• Big decisions cannot safely be made without adequate information, due consideration and appropriate consultation.
Solution:
• As a family or business group, develop and commit to a formal problem solving and decision making process, appropriate to circumstances.
• Practice using the process on small matters before putting it to the test on important / strategic issues.
• Document decisions made according to due process for ratification by a Board, Family Council, or other authority group.