Over The Hill
How to steer your business through a midlife crisis.
Your family business has made it through its initial
entrepreneurial struggle, sailed through its first succession, and
now has third- or fourth-generation owners and managers. Will it be
able to bypass a midlife crisis?
Probably not--especially if it lumbers along without being aware
that there may be forces bringing it down, says Mike Cohn, family
business consultant and president of The Cohn Financial Group Inc.
in Phoenix, which specializes in business succession
consulting.
Who are these potential enemies? The family owners
themselves.
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A business founded by a grandfather in the 1920s, for example,
might have three generations of shareholders--cousins, aunts,
uncles, nieces, nephews, children, even in-laws. Some might live in
the same town as the business and be involved in its management;
others might be thousands of miles away, disinterested in
everything about the business save its dividend checks.
Too much distance or, on the flip side, too much management
interference by owners can be the midlife crisis that threatens an
established family business' survival.
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