Inaugural post: Message from the founders of Generation6

The three of us have been fortunate to have been working with family businesses from the earliest days of the organized field in the early 1980s. We have witnessed the influx of professionals from a variety of backgrounds as the field developed. We have also seen the perils posed by consultants who failed to consider the particularities of the family enterprises they worked with, that is, the unique strengths, weaknesses, and constraints on both the family and business sides.

This led us to form Generation6, a group dedicated to the highest standards of professional service to enterprising families and their organizations. Because decades of working with enterprising families have shown us that when done right, the family’s involvement benefits both the family and its enterprises.

Our vision for what family business consulting should be

There are many fields that benefit from rigorous study, methodical approaches, high levels of accountability, and an orientation that prizes continuous improvement. To us, such a rigorous approach involves:

1. A core orientation that guides all our work.

2. An internally aligned, prioritized, and uncompromising values system.

3. Process management and expert advice are carefully balanced.

4. A thorough quality assurance program.

1 – Core Orientation

Family is at the core of our work, and all families are different. While it’s true that, as Curt Lewin said, here is nothing as practical as a good theory [1], good theories are rarely simple, and simplicity in itself can cause major harm. The family business field has been plagued by simplistic ideas that often do not recognize how different families can be. Actions, policies, solutions, and recommendations need to take into consideration the unique circumstances of each family. For example, while merit-based employment policies with lengthy criteria for family members might be effective for some families, they may cause conflict and disenfranchisement in others.

Meeting each family where it is at requires a deep understanding of the family’s values, needs, objectives, the maturity of family relationships, and other critical factors. Developing effective and sustainable solutions call for a process that gives all parties involved the opportunity to make their voice heard, securing family members’ buy-in upfront as opposed to ex-post.

Our consulting work, our service on boards of directors, and our seminal and award-winning research confirm time and again that relationships are the ultimate constraint on family business continuity. To make it clear, consider the following: “no matter how much money the business is losing, if family truly love one another, they’ll want to work together; likewise, no matter how much money a business is making, if family truly doesn’t like each other, they won’t want to work together.”

Family relationships - and by extension family cohesion - can only be nurtured through an orientation that ensures that advice and actions fit with family. This orientation is at the heart of everything we do, and that is why all the work that we do with families is customized and collaborative. Because if the relationships matter, then the process is at least as important as the outcome.

2 – Values System

We know that the most successful family businesses are made up of families that are unified, cohesive, and connected. At the same time, these families have the ability to take a long-term approach to evolving, strengthening, and preparing future generations of leadership.

Cohesion is created through a culture built on values. We work with family businesses to align on and articulate these values, so that as the family and business grow, these values are the guiding force. Through our work, we seek to practice the very same values that we believe to be integral to the success of the family businesses we serve. And while values statements are so ubiquitous that they risk losing meaning, we believe and practice ours; they guide all that we do, with one another and with all our stakeholders:

• We Act with Integrity: Our word is our bond. We stay true to our values, promises, commitments and our mission.

• We are Honest and Candid: The integrity of any human system is based on honesty and direct communication. We are dedicated to demonstrating honesty and candor in all we do.

• We Are Empathic and Generous: We appreciate and listen to everyone’s experience and perspective, and we strive to be generous in every respect, including with time, attention, wisdom, and attitude.

• We Prize Accountability and Quality Control: Making sure we serve others well requires us to continuously evaluate what we do, own our shortcomings and mistakes, and invite others to improve our work through oversight.

• We Collaborate and Promote Mutual Support: We believe in creating an environment of mutual support and collaboration for our clients and consultants. Through collaboration, we can take on the challenges that enable us to build long-term, sustainable relationships.

• We Rely on Rigorous and Useful Scholarship: We apply insights from rigorous academic research to bring about practical usage while individually driving clients’ success.

3 – Process and Advice in Balance

In our consulting work, we do both process and expertise-based consulting. Sometimes, it’s important to let a family struggle so that they can come up with their shared vision, and in the process develop better ways of communicating, resolving issues, managing emotions, and enhanced cohesion.

But at other times, issues may require more expedient action, or advice may be needed to jump-start a critical process, or advice may be crucial to prevent harmful actions or wasting time, and we are not afraid of giving direct advice. We will not hesitate to step in when needed and we know how to manage the consequences of a direct approach. This agility is driven by a profound awareness of what is best for our clients.

4 – Quality Assurance and Accountability Program

Legendary basketball coach Pat Riley opined that “great players crave instruction on their weaknesses” and “excellence happens when you try each day to both do and be a little better than you were yesterday”. In addition to having a team that lives this orientation, we have also established a rigorous quality assurance and accountability program.

1. Continuous learning and improvement: We adopt a continuous improvement orientation with all team members, evolving their personal development plans on a regular basis. All team members participate in our ongoing educational curriculum, which includes a variety of topics ranging from family psychology, to finance, and strategy.

2. Leveraging our team: We work in consulting teams of two or more to allow team members to double-check each other’s work and attend to details a solo consultant would be prone to miss (you wouldn’t want a single airplane pilot when you could have two).

3. Quality control: Our founders are involved in every single case, through regular case review and coaching sessions with the consulting teams. This helps us not only ensure each team’s best performance, but also allows us to support each individual consultant in their professional development. What is more, these regular orientation checks allow us to address any psychological or technical issues being faced by the consulting team and to make sure any sources of internal stress are identified and managed effectively.

Being at the top of your game requires hard work, dedication, and discipline. We know that we need to ask more of ourselves to help others effectively overcome the many emotional, relational, and technical challenges they face as a natural part of being a business family. We work hard to practice what we preach.

[1] Lewin, K. (1943). Psychology and the process of group living. Journal of Social Psychology, 17, 113–131.