Family run business

Family run business are able to capture two essential elements and merge them into one successful operation. Firstly, the family and the family members acting as the leaders  are in it for the long run. This means that they aim for the long run. For long term survival. At the same time their day-to-day decision making process is very swift. They don’t need big boards or many levels of hierarchy to approve an investment or marketing plan. They simply decide and execute. Together! And in this they resemble the entrepreneurial spirit of the (lean) start up; do – learn -adjust. In fact their decision making speed more or less resembles that of a start-up.
What lacks in most traditional companies is exactly this balance between long term vision and short term decision making. These companies stick to their current vision-plans whereas the context has already changed many times over while writing and discussing the plans internally. Than they still wonder why the plan didn’t work… It’s unfortunately something that is also present at the very top. The new CEO is busy in his first year to undo what his predecessor set in place and the next three years he rebuilds the organization to his ideas. Then it is high time for him to move on and the next CEO undoes in his first year the work of his predecessor….  No wonder that many companies are struggling to survive…