Different places around the world continue to deal with the challenges of COVID in different ways. Whether they are experiencing a second wave, or varying degrees of opening up, many of the challenges and opportunities are still present.
The issues that have arisen through the pandemic are primal, and place the fragility of life in sharp relief. Our instinctive responses also also primal: fight/flight/freeze, and we can remain locked in such states for a prolonged period.
One way to help move forward is for business owners to share their dilemmas with other business owners in similar situations. To do so (and obtain genuine benefit) requires a sense of communal trust and being prepared to share vulnerability (consider that most business owners will be experiencing similar to you).
Families in business together can move into action more quickly than most corporate entities because they’re more flexible, aren’t focused on the next quarter’s results, and understand the values that have made them successful over generations.
Leaders of family businesses that are effectively managing the crisis are prioritizing governance as an ‘essential service’ – adapting oversight of the enterprise under conditions of extreme uncertainty to ensure that family owners, board members, and executives remain aligned.
It is not surprising that many multigenerational family businesses are experiencing the pandemic differently from non-family businesses. Surprisingly few had deeper concerns about their survival and well-being as a family business. This is because multigenerational family businesses tend to define success in ways that go beyond short-term profits
In addition, the pandemic is accentuating the need for UHNW families to have a holistic, fully-integrated family office solution in place. This becomes even more critical when a family owns more complex assets and as the value and complexity of the balance sheet grows
Prolonged self-isolation is also leading families to fast track their succession and estate planning.
Consider This: After several months of COVID, has your family done a review of your response, and your learnings? How have things changed/adapted? Where have you fallen short? What opportunities still remain?
Original articles:
- Covid-19 takes mental health toll on family business leaders and next generations
- How Family Businesses Can Respond To The Pandemic: Collaboration, Openness And Sharing The Burden
- Pandemic Creates Spectrum of Opportunities for Enterprising Families
- What Family Businesses Need to Adapt to a Crisis
- Family firms and COVID-19
- 5 Ways Family Businesses Can Adapt To Covid-19
- When to Return to Leading Your Family Business During a Crisis
- Family Businesses Are Experiencing the COVID-19 Crisis in Unique Ways
- Why succession planning in a pandemic is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transfer wealth
Here is more on reading on family conflict resolution.
Also published on LI as COVID Challenges & Opportunities
