Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Family business

I aint gonna get brownie points for this.

As of late I come across 3 business models which run on the family concept. Family it self is an enigma of both good and bad, having a family run business is never an easy task from the onset. It take separation of home and business and personal issues. Heck countless of tamil movies have run on this theme

Having said that, there are great number of dynamic, successful family businesses that have turned out to be great corporations. The question that need to be asked how strong does a family need to be, how relenting should an individual be, or low should someone bend, many questions but no perfect answer. Never will be.

Why?

When you work in a non family business, you understanding of the employee is at office level not till home, the face that you see is the face at work, but doing business with people you grow up with is a delicate thing it chemistry. You can never treat them the same way, then again why should it stop you treating them the same way like any other staff? Coz fortunately or unfortunately you know them better.

Quote
"There are some cons too. Families aren’t the best at communication. Spending 40 to 50 hours a week with your father isn’t exactly conducive to the kind of communication most people are used to at work. When it’s family, you either end up saying how you feel and hurt someone’s feelings or you bottle it up and hurt yourself. This is the 3rd generation of his family business, and I often wonder how many more there will be.

While, I often complain about the politics involved in working in a corporate setting, I couldn’t imagine trying to approach my dad with some criticisms on how he’s running the family business. Imagine trying to talk to someone who constantly brings up your mistakes from when you were 12 -- that’s just not fun."

Any business family or not, is a result of your creative energies, visions, dedication and efforts that you put in, not the problems you add to it. In business when working with family it is important that roles, job descriptions and authorities are clearly defined; each members may do a little bit of everything but clarity of objectives is vital and there must be a sound understanding of who is responsible for what and who makes final decisions. Here is where personal sentiments, history, backbiting, bitching, foul play is left at the door, Do the job you are supposed to do and get on with it.

The simplest rule is to keep family-related issues outside of the workplace, keep business-related issues outside of the home.
Enjoy

3 comments:

RB said...

"The simplest rule is to keep family-related issues outside of the workplace, keep business-related issues outside of the home."

Delinquent rate to this rule is very high...

More often than not, this is not the case, so the subjects have to just get going with it the way it is by manipulating the system and the way things are, get left out in the dust as one of those 'extra decorative' relatives in the business, or just get off the train if they can't and don't want to conform.

All that said, in many cases it is a good way to rise if you are not industry specific, unsure what to do for a career, have limited prospects and are willing to put in the hours, and basically fall into opportunities based on how much people hope for you/ give you opportunities.

If you are industry specific and have something in mind, with prospects, and the family business you are in does not accomodate what you are, then you are in for a frustrating time. Its just like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

No matter how much you define you you are a square, people will not care, because that hole is round.

The hole is round.

Thank you berry much.

darthvadai said...

while we can breach black and white the world runs on grey heck even in my life, the more importantly is which size of the coin we want to attain. The positive or the negative

Svejjen said...

*scratches head*

No brownie points?

*scratches head in blurness*

Aiyo... so many parameters...