Business family
Every business family is unique, but what does it mean to be a business family?
Probably every member of the business family would respond to this question differently. For us, being a business family has meant being able to carry out a project, in very particular and temporary personal circumstances, that has developed very satisfactorily in the long term, while maintaining a series of values and experiences that the family has been able to transmit from generation to generation.
The business is like another member of the family. It needs to be nurtured while it grows.
It will make you suffer, but you will certainly be proud of it in the end.
Real life experiences
Everything starts somewhere
“In fact, I had no intention of working here, but my uncle died and there was nobody in the family who wanted to join. I got involved to help my father.”
“One day my father asked my very seriously, ‘They say you are good at math and I have a small problem that I need your help with.’ Now I work in haute cuisine and I can say that I started at the stove with my father.”
There are always obstacles
“Now we are a sustainable and highly productive, but very human company, although I have to say that the beginning and setting up were not easy.”“I am the son of Catalan immigrants and my father died when I was only 16, just as we were setting up the business. I decided that all that effort should bear the fruit that he desired so much, so I started working in sweet making. To reach the consolidation of the business we had to try many products; sweets that never found a place in the market, fillings that weren’t good enough and so on.
Finally, we put our faith in a well-planned publicity campaign and now things are going well, and we are working on a clear strategy for international expansion.”
“From the pre-war to post-war periods everything changed. However, it was true that we had to rebuild the country and what at first seemed like a huge gap became our great opportunity and we were able to take advantage of it.”
Results / Success
Success depends on fulfilling the shared family dream. It usually means moving forward with clear common objectives with a series of values that have characterized the family project since the beginning and harnessing the harmony and efficiency of the family and business, or in other words, the family business unit.
“POCKET MULTINATIONALS”, “CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY” AND “CAPTAINS OF COMMERCE”
An editorial project by xavier cambra, president of transmmission, that gathers the testimonials and the experience of 100 successful business families from the worlds of industry and commerce.
Today’s challenges for business families
Today’s business families live in an environment of constant transformation, this forces them to work constantly, realize the family dream and make the family project meaningful.
FOR THIS REASON, FAMILIES NEED TO KEEP THE FOLLOWING PIECES OF ADVICE IN MIND:
Wealth management
A family is a business family because they have produced and managed wealth and understand that wealth includes financial, patrimonial, human and emotional assets. It must also manage this in the long term, bearing in mind the generations to come.
Planning for a business family means long term actions based on strategy: families think in generations, not in 60 or 90-day cycles.
A business family must manage many types of wealth, not only finances. One type of wealth that it must grow is the talent it has amongst its seniors, juniors and staff. This is family patrimony and although it is not patentable the results of it are; this makes its benefits tangible.