Family: Most important unit…
The life cycle of family businesses is subject to a series of decisions that include family and organizational aspects. Experience shows us that just as many family businesses are born, so many of them disappear in the long term, this means that only some survive the attacks and situations that arise and even fewer are those that have achieved the status of They are a large company and continue to be among the most important in their sector, but in the Colombian case, the maturity of families has become a variable of great importance for the growth of family businesses in the long term.
According to Miguel Ángel Gallo, in a first approach to the evaluation of the cycles of the family business, we can identify two factors of importance in shaping the problems of these organizations: First, there is the family, which in turn presents its corresponding evolution in stages.
1. The Founder and the Owner: In this first stage, the family's problems are linked to the economic security that the entrepreneur's spouse must enjoy. Another problem is the planning of the transfer of assets, this problem is also closely linked to the simple fact of the succession of power and management of the company to the second generation.
2. Second Generation "Brothers As Partners": Again this stage means problems to be solved by a new team of managers, the first and most typical of them is to achieve harmony within the group and consolidate their capabilities by combining them in teamwork, in parallel They must commit their efforts but this time so that the ownership of the company remains in the hands of the family. Finally, and similarly to the first stage, the succession problem arises, which, not being a more divided group, is no longer a serious problem.
3. Third Generation "Cousins And Family Members As Shareholders": If the EF has managed to overcome the first two stages, it will have to face perhaps a greater test, since by this time it will be necessary to speak more firmly of the dividends to the shareholders, which ones may or may not be of the family, at the same time. time and in parallel a liquidity must be guaranteed for these without neglecting as a third important point the financing of the company. At this stage, government roles and the participation of family members in decision-making must be clear. To finish in the third generation, the culture of the company must be inculcated not only to family members but to shareholders as such so that conflicts can be resolved beforehand without damaging the interests of the company.
Family businesses give a major boost to local economies.
The other decisive factor in the evolution of the family business cycle is the same company, whose evolution can also be divided into three stages similar to those of the family:
1. Undertake: It is no secret to anyone that the main problem of management at this stage is surviving. This stage is estimated to be within the first twenty years of the company. The other goal is to grow and for this the entrepreneur must have enough vision and training to achieve it.
2. Professionalize the Company: When the time comes when you must delegate responsibilities and take advantage of long-term planning, it is when management faces the problem of a strategic revitalization that is also accompanied by the problem of formalizing management systems. that the company needs due to its evolutionary degree of a much finer communication and control system without professionalization being misinterpreted as simply the academic training of executives but rather as a deep commitment at all levels with the needs of the firm.
3. To venture into the Multiproduction of Goods and Services: that is, that the company is at the right time to take on several different businesses from the one that originally gave it life, but taking advantage of the experience and knowledge it has gained during the previous stages. This stage brings problems such as the allocation of resources to these new ventures combined with a more restrictive control of investments since various interests are combined. An additional management problem is the creation of a corporate strategy and the consolidation of a business culture that facilitates relations between shareholders and facilitates the succession of the company in the future but based on leadership.
When we cross the two previous factors with their respective evolutions in time and in the size of the company, we find a series of circumstances that do not belong to either one or the other factor, but are problems of the evolution of the family business, these Problems can be summarized in four main points that in future presentations we will develop in more detail.
1. The Triple Coincidence Of Adverse Circumstances. This triple coincidence is given in the maturation of the business and the decline in managerial capacities, the change in the needs of the founder and the tax cost of the succession of ownership of the company to the second generation.
2. The Internationalization Of The Company. Thanks to the strategic revitalization, the EF will face the option of exporting and internationalizing, leaving behind the local market in which it developed in its early stages.
3. Changes In Relationships Between Stakeholders. Here we talk about company staff, owners and family members, and the four groups resulting from the intersection of the previous three.
4. The Structural Crises. As a last element in the situations of the evolution of the family business, here it refers to the various erroneous forms of organization that apply in RUs. Duplicate, quential, family tree, tribal, police and by substitutes.
