Strategy and Growth

The client's challenge

This firm had been in family hands since its establishment over a century ago. Although the family no longer manages the company directly, they advise and supervise senior management through a family council.

In recent years, the family was concerned to see an appreciation for its long tradition, heritage and culture fade—in particular among middle management. They wanted to make imparting a deeper internal understanding of these values a strategic objective.

Our response

We first helped the client define and implement a balanced scorecard (BSC) to measure how well the strategic goal was being executed. We then worked with the client to link selected performance metrics from the BSC to the managers’ remuneration.

With this new lever in place, the client was able to reward behaviour that supported the strategy—and the family saw a much better identification with its core business values.

The client's challenge

Following a major acquisition, a leading family business in the food and beverage industry wanted to create a global procurement organisation that would be responsible for the management of indirect supply to all operating units of the enlarged organisation.

The client wanted to realise significant savings through efficiencies and scale, but also wanted to ensure a smooth transition into the company’s business practices and culture.

Our response

Drawing from our extensive procurement experience, we helped the client set up a global indirect procurement organisation that reflected industry best practices. We helped all current employees affected by this change understand clearly how it would affect them, including new roles and expectations.

We also provided senior leadership—which included both family members and external managers—with tools to help them communicate appropriately with all other stakeholders across the business, including employees of the new indirect procurement organisation.

This included creating an employee playbook for all people within the new organisation covering topics such as the family firm’s vision, mission statement and strategy, and the new company’s structure and stakeholders.

The client's challenge

A seventh-generation family firm, a niche player in the consumer goods industry, was faced with substantial seasonal business volatility, immense cost pressures and the need for constant innovation.

Unfortunately, the company’s business results were below target, also falling short of the expectations set by the family council. The client was concerned about the risk of management’s over-focusing on short-term cost reductions at the expense of longer-term growth and the maintenance of strategic options.

Our response

We carried out a thorough analysis, including benchmarking, of the firm’s strategic planning and operations. We then helped management implement a database-driven enterprise planning system tailored to their business and designed to be an accurate approximation of their business environment.

With these powerful new tools in place, the firm was able to ensure that their strategic and operational plans were much more reliable. These also gained the full acceptance of the family council, and helped secure the long-term growth of the family business.

What makes family businesses different?

Insights from around the world

"It is important to teach each new generation, early on, the difference between ownership and stewardship. Ownership is a right of possession. Stewardship is a fiduciary role. It is holding the institution in 'trust for' the next generation. We feel, as a family, that this institution has been passed on to us for our care and not for us to dissipate or do what we will with it for our personal gain."

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Corporation, Philippines, Founded in 1834

"Being both the CEO and the owner makes you constantly questioned but at the same time never questioned at all."

Karin Bodin, Managing Director, Polarbröd, Founded in 1972.

"It is important to teach each new generation, early on, the difference between ownership and stewardship. Ownership is a right of possession. Stewardship is a fiduciary role. It is holding the institution in 'trust for' the next generation. We feel, as a family, that this institution has been passed on to us for our care and not for us to dissipate or do what we will with it for our personal gain."

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Corporation, Philippines, Founded in 1834

"Being both the CEO and the owner makes you constantly questioned but at the same time never questioned at all."

Karin Bodin, Managing Director, Polarbröd, Founded in 1972.

"I think my staff appreciate the continuity in the business. They prefer working for a family business like ours. The openness of management to future plans and the 'all in it together' mentality binds staff to the company."

Charles Hodgson, Managing Director, Hodgson Sealants Ltd., United Kingdom, Founded in 1968

"One of our main competitive advantages at Componenta, a listed family business, is the speed of decision-making as we have managed to align the interests of the owners and the managers in the decision-making process."

Heikki Lehtonen, Managing Director, Componenta Oyj, Finland, Founded in 1918

"As a fifth generation member of a family in the yachtbuilding business, I believe that continuity is of invaluable importance. Our advanced custom yachts are luxury products but you really don't need glamour to compete successfully. I learned from my father how genuinely clients appreciate a down-to-earth approach and a long tradition of technical excellence."

Alice Huisman, Managing Director, Royal Huisman Shipyard BV, The Netherlands, Founded in 1884