Jul
2010
Keeping it in the family
I was recently asked by Donna a former colleague to give my perspective on family-run organisations. How different is it working with them as opposed to PLCs?
I’ve worked with a few family-run organisations in my time with H&K (and indeed my Dad ran one before his retirement).
Frankly, I have had a fairly varied experience. One of the common factors has been a high-level of engagement. And in one case almost fanatical loyalty to the organisation and indeed the family. (Reading that back makes it sound like I’m talking about an episode of the The Sopranos).
I have also experienced a crushing culture of fear. And occasionally in-fighting. This has often been compounded by a lack of clear governance. And some senior people feeling that they were not on the “inside”.
I put this to a colleague I met recently who works at Smollan – a family-run company who are a recent addition to the WPP family. He certainly recognised the emotional engagement bit but disputed the issue around governance. His view was that family-run organisations had to compete in the same market as PLCs so they simply had to be well run.
Indeed, you only have to look at the banking crisis to realise that governance isn’t always at its best at large, global PLCs either.
So maybe it’s not that different after all.
