The Root of Conflict

By Prof. Enrique Soriano

 

Family Business expert David Bork expressed in his Family Business Matters article, “relationships in a family business are like the wheels on a chariot. When the wheels are in balance, there is energy and productivity, but once broken, everything slows or shuts down. If one person in a relationship discounts another, it breaks the success momentum with differing levels of cost. The breakage can come from anywhere or anyone, from the oldest to the youngest, even from family members outside of the business environment.” Very true.

 

Many years ago I was commissioned by a leading financial institution to conduct a study covering hundreds of wealthy families in Asia and discovered an 80% failure rate in several areas notably, succession, sibling rivalry and trust. In a way the study galvanized what we knew all along that the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves” phenomena, where wealth disappears in three generations was so pervasive yet preventable. The study also concluded that the major causes of family collapse were within the family itself, having more to do with behavioral issues rather than external or global or regional economic upheavals. It also further showed that most family meltdowns were caused primarily by a collapse in trust and communication followed by the failure of parents or key business leaders to adequately prepare the next generation offspring  for creating and managing the wealth.

In that study, we also discovered that there were many strengths inherent in a family-run business. Foremost to these strengths are the following:

 

a. At an early stage, a remarkable leader, a super-entrepreneur emerges and guides the business with extraordinary passion and insight

b. Decisions are made quickly minus the bureaucracy

c. A simple structure that makes the organization nimble

d. Family members are collectively focus and committed

e. And for as long as the leader is around, the business will remain stable

 

But successful growth comes at a cost. As the business grows in size and scale, it becomes increasingly harder for the leader to manage. When the enterprise reaches this tipping point—it is swamped with internal struggles, regular family skirmishes and conflicts as well as challenges due to the complexity and overlapping nature found in these organizations. As new family members join the business, conflicts further escalate and strained family relationships continue to wreck the business. It takes only one aberrant family member to hurt the family and the business.  As Bork said, ‘while it takes only one broken dowel to hurt a relationship, it takes many branches to create and maintain it. The Germans have a term for this person whose behavior departs substantially from the standard, “ein Haar in der Suppe, or a hair in the soup.” It takes several ingredients to make a good stew and only one fly to spoil it.

 

I have lost count of family-controlled businesses that did not survive a generational transition due to a betrayal of trust. Only those that are classified as high profile cases have gotten the spotlight like the highly publicized corporate feud in South Korea involving the two sons wrestling control of the country’s fifth largest “chaebol” Lotte Group (annual revenues $90 B) and the dispute over the assets of Stanley Ho, Asia’s gambling billionaire. The last decade of Ho’s life was mired by very public squabbles among family members eager to gain a share of his vast wealth. And according to Bloomberg, most of his wealth, estimated at $14.9 billion in 2019 was split between two of his children and his second wife, Angela. Ho, considered as the godfather of gambling sired 17 children from four women.