Rules | Roles | Company Future | Family Dynamics | Estate
[continued from previous Moore Family Articles]
The first thing the advisor did with the Moore Family was to find out what’s really going on – from each person’s perspective. They started with a series of individual interviews with each family member to understand each person’s current position within the Company, their thoughts about their involvement in the Family Business in the future, as well as their personal goals for the future. The family business advisor then met with the family as a whole to review their initial observations and outline key next steps.
Key highlights from the initial observations:
- Family Business Rules & Guidelines
- There are different views on how the family business and the family ranch should be run.
- Joan thinks the business and the ranch are separate entities and should be as such. The business should be run like a business with no family perks.
- George Jr. favors the many advantages the family members enjoy (car, gas, travel, time-off) and feels that is a benefit of ownership.
- Peter wants to make a business out of the family ranch and wants the family to invest together.
- There are different views on how the family business and the family ranch should be run.
- Future Roles
- George Sr. is ready to retire in the next 2-3 years. Meaning he wants out of the day-to-day operations, but would still like to stay active as an advisor to Gen 2 after retirement.
- It is unclear who will replace George Sr. as the President of Moore Flooring.
- The Gen 3ers working in the family business are not clear about their future in the family business.
- Company Future
- Family members have different views of the future business strategy.
- George Jr. wants to shrink the product lines and focus on only the highest margin products.
- Joan wants to diversify to protect the business from a softening economy and cater to a wider clientele base.
- Peter has suggested sourcing new products and materials from China.
- Family members have different views of the future business strategy.
- Family Dynamics
- Nancy does not want any conflict. It’s not worth it for the family to fight or bicker.
- There is an underlying power struggle between George Jr. and Joan since neither person is sure who will take over for George Sr.
- Peter feels like an outsider sometimes since he doesn’t work in the Family Business.
- Moore Family Estate
- The future ownership of the company is unclear.
- George Sr. and Nancy have a will and estate plan in place, but it was last updated almost 10 years ago.
- The estate plan currently leaves ownership equally among the ‘kids’ (Gen 2), but George Sr. and Nancy are not sure that is the best plan.
Initial next steps:
- Draft the Moore Family Business Constitution to function as the Family’s guiding principles and rules for running the Family Business.
- Create the Moore Flooring 5-Year Strategic Plan to define the strategic direction of Moore Flooring.
- Define and implement the Moore Flooring Succession Plan which will include future role and responsibility clarification for Family members and a path for leadership transition.
- Update and refine George Sr. and Nancy’s Retirement and Estate Plan.
Next Meeting: Start the family business constitution.
BCR has extensive experience in working with many family-owned businesses in all of our areas of services. If you have any questions or need advice regarding your family-owned business, please give us a call at (808)545-4111. Or reach out via our Contact Us page.
