If Companies Could Speak, Generational Transition Would Be Easier

Written by: Boris Vukić, Adizes Southeast Europe (ASEE)

I am sure that having a character like Tarzan would greatly assist all participants in the generational transition process. Not for the reason that first comes to mind: that such a strong figure, through the argument of strength, could persuade successors, and in some cases even founders, to behave more responsibly. The story of Tarzan’s character and deeds, I remind you, also includes the part about how he understood what animals were saying and conversed with them. There is also a joke on that topic, but it is not polite, so I will not mention it.

Sometimes I regret that, like Tarzan, I do not have the ability to hear what a subject has to say about the actors in the generational transition. And that subject is the company. Events in the business world are often more complicated than in fiction, but that subject cannot speak about them, so we cannot hear them. And I am actually sure that it can speak, emit some sounds: sometimes painful cries, sometimes cries of disappointment or excitement; sometimes it laughs, sometimes it cries. And I believe it does this especially during the generational transition. It certainly makes its voice heard, but we, human beings, do not hear that frequency. Unfortunately.

In Transition, There Are No Unbiased Parties

I am really curious about what companies would have to say about founders and successors, not to mention the managers who work in them.

In some situations during advisory work, while sitting at the table with family members and together seeking answers to their topics, I take a piece of cardboard and write the name of their company in front of an empty chair with a marker. This is meant to jolt them a bit, to help them step out of their shoes, to think about how much their personal or family interests align with the interests of the company. And I ask them who advocates for the one whose name is written in front of the empty chair, who speaks, who represents the interests of the company.

Superficial observers of the topic, while reading these lines, might think it is logical for that to be the founder. It is not. More precisely, it is not always. Let me remind you: every responsible founder wants to make decisions that will be best for the company and, when they decide, to be fair to their children. The emphasis is on the term ‘responsible founder’. And many, either out of negligence or consciously, do not behave responsibly. Even the most well-meaning towards their ‘child’ cannot help but also care about their biological children. My attempt to bring the company to the table and include it in our discussions helps a little, but it has a short-lived effect. Sometimes it is remembered only as a good ‘joke’.

Several times, I have been (more often successors) directed to have a private conversation with managers, with the idea that they would tell me ‘unbiased’ how they see the situation and how each of them, the successors or the founder, relates to the business. It does not occur to me to follow that advice because employees are not unbiased. An interested subject cannot be objective. Managers are certainly biased towards themselves, their families, their existence. Their behavior is human, and I see no reason to put them in an uncomfortable situation. I have also advised countless times managers who are not members of the founder’s family not to interfere in ‘their affairs’.

For the best diagnosis, and then recommendations for the generational transition, it would be very useful for all of us to know what companies could say about founders and successors, and, why not, also about managers. How they relate to it, to hear somewhat banal tidbits, for example, how much someone ‘charges’ the official card for private lunches and earthly pleasures; then how the company feels when someone persistently wants to give the impression that they promote it, while it sees that they promote themselves, or vice versa; who is the one who hides their interests and pushes them as if they were its; does it fear how its life will look when the founder is no longer in this world, who suffocates it and when, in whose hands it would feel safer: is it one or the other successor or perhaps someone completely different; would it prefer to be ‘married off’ and not see them anymore and why… There would be a lot of information that would help all actors in the generational transition.

Why I Wrote This Text

I will certainly use this tool when I need to create a generational transition plan by asking founders and successors to consider what their company says about them. But I will not reach all of you. I write this because I believe it would be beneficial for founders and successors, and even managers, to reflect on what their companies would say about them if they could hear them. Perhaps then some decisions would be made more cautiously, some sentences would be spoken with the awareness that they, consciously or unconsciously, do not offend it.