What Carl Wants to Do
Stewarding Ownership and Family Around Events of Change or Transition
I am a 30-year-old centi-million business. My owner is thinking about a change of leadership so he can step down. Yet this has been a last-minute communication. Thus, the opinions of Owner, family members, stakeholders and trusted advisers were confused and conflicted. No consensus emerged.
The owner tried to address the issues or his challenges that led to his change decision. But he was talking about the symptoms, not the underlying causes. Thus, conflicting views rose and some blamed others without cause.
Owner Asks Carl to Help Him
Carl believes in having all family members involved in the family business/office/ to have the opportunity to articulate the following:
· Where they have come from,
· Where they are now and
· Where they want to go.
It is also best to hear from trusted advisors and stakeholders to see whether there is alignment between family members and others. This is a subtle way to see if this has produced aspirations or grievances from the time when wealth was first created.
Carl’s Approach
Begins with intakes that are always necessary in varying degrees. Each participant contributes their perspective and who is part of the problem and who is part of the solution, also emerges.
Intakes lead toward milestones.
Carl uses a holistic approach; GRRK ; Governance, Relationships, Risk and Knowledge on a dual track.
· The first track is to determine where a concentrated risk exists and how it is measured, managed, or mitigated, and assigned a value.
· The other track is to engage key stakeholders in the near- and long-term vision of the asset and the family legacy.
He develops an agenda and gets buy-in of stakeholders and trust advisors. Outcomes are now clear, concrete and there is consensus.
Finally, this approach enables him to provide a meaningful road map of where they were, are, and will be, by extracting their whys and why nots. This offers CLARITY to all.
