Daddy Issues

After a recent presentation on competitive focus, a member of the audience asked me about the challenges of bringing a founder and his heir/successor into sync about the future of the company. It’s a classic tussle as the founder entrusts his favorite child to his biological seed.

Dad (usually, it’s a dad) didn’t need mom’s help to give birth to his favorite child, so this baby is all his and it’s nearly impossible to let go. Meanwhile, the heir apparent has been preparing forever to take over the company and show that he/she has even more smarts than pop did.

If dad is a true entrepreneur, he got where he is by ignoring naysayers and forging ahead to create a legacy by force of will. He doesn’t need anyone telling him what he did wrong and what he’s doing wrong, especially anyone whose diapers he changed and whose MBA he financed.

What do they do to bridge the gaps?

I was about to recommend the usual routes of family advisors, lawyers, priests, imams, etc., when it occurred to me that the customer (big shock!) might be the best intermediary. I wasn’t thinking about getting the customers involved as family counselors, but as the external third party demanding the focus of both founder and heir.

• Don’t do it dad’s way.
• Don’t do it junior’s way.
• Do it the customer’s way.

Part of the problem with generational transfers is the pressure from each side to do it “my way.” If both sides can accede to the customer’s guidance, though, some issues are off the table in terms of old versus new. Thanksgiving dinner is now an opportunity to laugh about how crazy the customers are, but, dagnabbit, we just gotta love’m. Dad and Junior are allied in their bemusement and their response. Even if they don’t agree on everything, they have a common focal point for their energies.

While everyone is in business to serve the customer, both the founder and successor are human. Each has a need to be right—and relevant. Put the customers in charge of the conversation, even if they aren’t actually in the room, and each party has the opportunity to accede, not to the other generation but to the ultimate arbiter.

Focus on the customer is one way to preserve the legacy that a family business represents. It might also ease the pressures in a transition to the next generation. For owners and heirs, it’s a path worthy of consideration.