Month: February 2021

Succession is a sensitive moment in any organization, since it is intended to ensure the continuity and development of the legacy maintaining a balance among family, ownership and business.  With this proposition, the Catalonian Family Business Association (ASCEF), organized a conference entitled “Family Businesses Before the Succession Challenge”, with the collaboration of the University of Abad Oliva CEU and the participation of TOUS Corporate Vice-president, Rosa Tous.

“Succession is a sensitive moment and needs to be addressed with care and not out out of improvisation or emotional impulses. It should be well prepared, for it is a process, where strategy, organization and governance must converge“, explained Amadeu Jori, ASCEF President. “Their main actors are not only the person leaving the position and the one succeeding him, but also the rest of the members of the stock holding family“, he added.

Dr. Camen Ruiz-Viñal and Dr. Ferando Álvarez-Gómez, director and subdirector respectively of the Department of Family Business and Company Creation of the University of Abad Oliva CEU, presented the report “Spanish Family Businesses Before the Succession Challange”, prepared along with other researchers members of international consortium STEP Project (Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices), where it was noted, among other figures, that 70% of the today’s family businesses acknowledge not having a succession plan.

According to this study’s data, most of CEOs are baby boomers, 24% are women and 45% belong to the company’s second generation.  Dr. Álvarez-Gómez underscored that “succession plans prevent situations of conflict in the future“. However, he indicated that there is “a limited proactivity” in most businesses since “the business leader is expected to reach an age close to retirement“.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ruiz-Viñal thought that the COVID-19 pandemic “has entailed an acceleration in family business succession processes“.    She also added that millennials are increasingly being taken into consideration, since the pandemic has also accelerated businesses digitalization“.

TOUS Corporate Vice-president, Rosa Tous, took part in the conference “The Great Challenges of Family Business, moderated by Dr. Juan Corona, Academic Advisor for the Business Family Institute. Tous, who explained that fourth generation family members have started to enter the business, underscored that “in the family business, we want to build to endure“.

Tous indicated that, once the second to third generation succession was planned in 2008, “we set up a family council with the intention of working on behavioral matters involved in being a family business member, knowing that we have three roles: family, stock-holder and business executive“. “It is important to know how to interact within the company, differently as in family reunions, being aware that this involves a learning process“, Rosa Tous added.

Assets management in family business, the country’s main source of wealth and, was the topic analyzed in the show Diálogos at La Vanguardia, held last week with the presence of Amadeu Jori, President of the Catalonian Association of Family Business (ASCEF). Other participants were Josep Tàpies, IESE Professor Emeritus specialized in family business; Antoni Murt, EY Associate in Barcelona; José Alarcón, Andbank General Business Director in Spain and Pere Guardiola, Godó Strategies‘ CEO.

Amadeu Jori stated that most of the successful family businesses set assets growth as their priority goal in order to ensure their continuity in the future. In this way, ASCEF President acknowledged that professionalization is a recurrent debate among family businesses: “It means finding the best people to run the business, whether they are family members or not, both on a daily basis and among government bodies. There are more doubts in the field of assets management, but it is obvious that it is also necessary. However, it is never to be neglected, instead the management conducted by professionals should be watched upon closely“.

“Much is said about the need to professionalize leadership and business management, but the importance of professionalizing assets management is not so valued, something that requires an appropriate specialization“, explained Alarcon, who advocates that assets management professionalization “is more important as family generations advance as it becomes more difficult to harmonize the interests of each family member“. “Family assets management must be aligned with the legacy, which constitute the set of values of each family business“, he added.

“The main goal of family businessmen is always to think of the business and create business. The surplus is either invested on the business, on starting a new one or on current businesses” explained Amadeu Jori. ASCEF President favors the commission of assets management to professionals but insisted on the need for a very close administration and supervision by the family counsel.

Professor Tàpies deems it necessary to professionalize finance management, “but you need to let this professional know what is expected and define how much risk and volatility you are willing to assume“. “Watching over intangible family business assets is as important as doing it for financial assets“, he added.

Meanwhile, Antoni Murt regretted the lack of a legal and tax system specific of family businesses. He thinks that proceeds reinvestment and assets accumulation are not being protected, which is part of the family business strategy to prepare for the future.

You may access the whole article through this link: Dinero-LaVanguardia.