The Learning Performance

My customer's partner has a furniture factory, and has been in the business for the last 20 or so years. The company is making money, no doubt, but the business climate is getting more and more cloudy these days. Competitions, uncertainties, escalating costs, and myriad of other issues cropping up every day, and never seem to end anytime soon.

The business is run by brothers, unfortunately all of them lack any formal qualifications.

Blood and sweat and good fortune can take you somewhere, but the road has a dead end.

This is the dilemma facing by family businesses. At this point of time, the brothers know that they lack capabilities and capacities to run the business, but how to let go?

I don't think letting go is the main issue. The issue in the mindset of the family owners. Human are basically territorial. We build fences around our house, we put up boundaries to stake our claims. Letting outsiders into our cycle of comfort zone would be a frightening experiences. The family owners need to change their mindset by:
- Have a clear succession plan.
- Setting business goals and targets
- Put in monitoring and control systems
- Setting clear role and responsibilities, including the owners themselves
- Build effective leaders, managers and workforce
- Empower and delegates
- Sit back and enjoy

The missing part in the above plan of attack is to bring in professional managers. With right qualifications and concrete incentive plan, the owners can be ensure of, with certain degree of comfort, that the business can go on.

Fresh blood and professionalism is needed to get family business out of doldrum.

Just look at Microsoft, Dell, and Apple, HP, GE. These are come of the well-known corporations run by professional managers, after the founders/owners let go the reigns.

Hanging on would just be hung.