Parallel Governance: Key to Family Business Sustainability | EY
In the corporate world, succession is a pipeline. In the family universe, succession is a knife fight in a phone booth. the family business parallel universe
No exploration of this universe is complete without acknowledging the tragic figure of the In-Law. Parallel Governance: Key to Family Business Sustainability |
Rather than viewing the family and the business as separate entities, this approach acknowledges they exist in a "parallel" state where decisions in one directly impact the other. Core Concepts of the Parallel Planning Process The most authoritative text on this subject is Strategic Planning for the Family Business Rather than viewing the family and the business
Don't hire a family member unless they have worked somewhere else for at least three years. They need to know that the way you run the warehouse is not how the real world works. They need to have a boss yell at them who isn't their parent.
So the family split into strategies. One faction doubled down on discretion and the artistry of persuasion: learning how to make favors feel like gifts and to make repayments voluntary. Another faction argued for an end to the ledger's hold: donate the shops to the city, open the keys to anyone who needed them, insist that favors be unconditional. Arguments between siblings about mission were not merely philosophical—they determined how the city would be governed in minor, consequential ways. A disagreement about whether to grant a particular favor could affect a thousand small lives.