We are living all over the world. What can we do to help keep the family together? - Excerpt from Enabling Next Generation Legacies

The Family Enterprise Legacy Institute has been featuring select parts from the book, Enabling Next Generation Legacies: 35 Questions That Next Generation Members in Enterprising Families Ask. The result of years of international research and practical experience, Enabling Next Generation Legacies delves into the unique challenges that confront family enterprises. Telfer professors Peter Jaskiewicz and Sabine Rau have brought together the world’s leading academics, practitioners, and enterprising families to answer the most pressing questions faced by Next Generation members in a short and concise, yet meaningful way.

The book consists of best practices, real-life examples, and additional critical questions for reflection from nearly 100 contributors from 27 different countries. Expert commentaries come from members of the world’s leading family businesses including Auchan (France), Saputo (Canada), and Sabra (Israel), as well as from various academic experts from business schools around the globe like Kellogg, IMD, and INSEAD.

Below, read an expert response to a pressing question raised by Next Generation members.

We are living all over the world. What can we do to help keep the family together?

Response by Christine Blondel, France

Families Living All over the World

With an increasing number of family members studying and sometimes settling abroad, keeping the family together can be a challenge. A poll conducted by the hotel chain IHG in 2019 among 2,000 people in the UK indicated that the respondents’ average family spanned over 2,000 miles around the world, and that one in ten persons surveyed had a family member living 10,000 miles away. The survey also mentioned that 51% of those surveyed thought that many did not make the effort to get together.[i] The survey was conducted in the general population, not in a pool of business-owning families, which could be expected to have a higher motivation to make the efforts to get together. However, the question remains: Do we make the effort? And if we do, which efforts can we make? What can we do to help keep the family together?

1.   Stay in touch

Stay in touch with the “big” family meeting or family trip: A number of families have a history of travelling and setting up businesses in different parts of the world, like Chinese, Lebanese, or Indian diasporas. Several Indian families can be an inspiration in the way they organize systematic yearly reunions to gather family members from different parts of the world. These yearly reunions generally last several days and include separate business and family moments.

Comparably, some European business families organize trips every year or so. All family members gather in their home country or abroad, for a programme that includes visits of family business facilities, sightseeing, and family activities. Travel provides casual forms of interactions, such as singing together in the bus after dinner. More simply, the general assembly of shareholders, held once a year, can be expanded beyond the formal meeting to include a lively information session about the business, exchanges, and some nice family time afterwards. Some families run two such meetings per year, and the historic family home, if still there, can be a great gathering point.

Stay in touch—there are so many other opportunities to connect: While the big family meeting is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the family and its activities, smaller meetings can be organized by age groups, affinities, and geographies. Members of a large business family explain how they multiply occasions to meet: welcome seminar for young owners from the age of eighteen (with sessions on history, business activities, meetings with leaders, etc.), Next Gen thematic evenings followed by informal get-togethers or quarterly exchanges between young family professionals about their careers.[ii]

Stay in touch without travelling: The COVID pandemic created another challenge for families spread throughout the world: family meetings or trips were no longer possible for most families. However, in parallel, the pandemic triggered a complete change in habits with the extensive use of video conferences. We have seen virtual family meetings with dozens of members who could participate using instant survey tools. Ironically, distant members who seldom attended before could be there thanks to technology—which should definitely be kept in the family tool kit. In addition to the expansion of video meetings, more traditional technical tools such as intranet platforms are still used by families to connect and share information, as well as more accessible and instantaneous messaging applications. It should be noted that intranet platforms need to be fuelled in order to stay attractive, while messaging applications require sensitivity in their use—the impact of an emotional comment can go well beyond its intention once it reaches dozens of family members. As families develop codes of conduct for their meetings, they can develop codes for the use of social media and other tools.

Interestingly in a technology era, some families still develop and distribute paper newsletters. These hard copies, which include information about the business, the family, and other activities (such as philanthropy, entrepreneurship, history, etc.), can easily be shared with close family members of all ages.[iii] 

2.   Take an active role and become involved in a project

Get involved: Family meetings, trips, or newsletters can be lived in a passive way (e.g., showing up at the meeting, which is already positive) or in a more active way (e.g., helping with the meeting organisation, contributing to the newsletter, etc.). A rotation can be organized in order to engage more family members in the organisation. There are many other projects in which family members can take an active role, such as contributing to the family tree and family history (e.g. filming interviews of senior members of the family), organizing owners’ education, promoting the development of the family “creed” (values, vision, mission), creating a family charter, and being engaged in philanthropic activities, entrepreneurship support, etc.[iv] A great way to create impetus is to ask family members—for instance, reflecting in small groups—to suggest initiatives, and ideally organize their implementation.

Think outside the box: To create a feeling of togetherness while being far away, think of objects, books, or stories that can contribute to reinforce the family identity. Some families have a family song. Some remember tales that convey their founder’s philosophy. Others give personalized presents at family meetings—this could give rise to interesting anecdotes like in this family where two persons who did not know each other realised they were cousins when they saw they had the same family gift!

Conclusion

As with any challenge, those faced by families who are geographically distant have the opportunity to foster creative solutions to keep the family connected. Many family activities can be organized by a geographically diverse team. These activities contribute to the family cohesion in two ways: first, the nature of family activities reinforces shared identity and pride, and second, they offer an opportunity to engage distant members of the family. For example, a successful but geographically distant entrepreneur was happy to receive a call from a family member asking if she could mentor other potential family entrepreneurs. She was delighted to do so. In summary, the fact that business family members might be geographically dispersed does not mean they cannot stay in touch. Technology can help you as well as creativity. If staying in touch is important to you, show your interest and take an active role. Start by answering messages and finding out ways you can contribute. Your family will be thankful, and you will learn a lot and enjoy too!

[i] Astrid Hall, “British families are now spread all over the word – with one in ten living more than 10k miles away,” The Sun, December 2019. Retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10512620/british-families-spread-over-world/.

[ii] Christine Blondel and Anne Dumas, “Se préparer au ‘cap des 400 actionnaires familiaux,’” in L’entreprise familiale sauvera-t-elle le capitalism?: Portraits (Paris: Autrement, 2008), 141-142.

[iii] Author’s Interviews Fall 2020

[iv] Torsten M. Pieper, “Inventory of mechanisms to enhance family business family cohesion,” in Mechanisms to Assure Long-Term Family Business Survival. (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2007), 213.