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What does it Mean to be a Woman in a Family Enterprise Today? The answer is as diverse as the families and businesses themselves. Some roles are formal and visible – board members, executives, or shareholders. Others unfold quietly, behind the scenes—shaping culture, guiding decisions, or preparing the next generation. However, many are a blend of both. BCR believes these stories matter. That’s why we’re supporting the Women in Power project, a global survey put on by our friends at Women in Family Business that seeks to capture the real experiences of women in family enterprises. The survey is designed to reflect the nuance and complexity of these journeys. It is: Women in Power Survey Take the survey here! Why does this matter? Because building an honest, inclusive understanding of women’s influence in family enterprises benefits us all. Every perspective shared contributes to a richer picture of how women lead, shape, and grow within family businesses around the world. If you are a woman in a family enterprise, we invite you to share your story. And if you know someone who should be part of this conversation, please pass the Women in Power survey along. Every story adds depth.

Family businesses face unique challenges, from balancing personal relationships to making tough strategic decisions. In this exclusive interview, Cathy Carroll, author of Hug of War: How to Lead a Family Business with Both Love and Logic, shares her proven strategies for building harmony, driving growth, and leading with both heart and reason. Whether you’re in the middle of a succession plan, navigating family dynamics, or simply looking for better ways to lead, Cathy’s insights will give you practical tools and fresh perspectives. These tools are just the beginning. Discover how BCR equips family businesses to navigate succession, growth, and family dynamics. Let’s connect!

At Business Consulting Resources, we specialize in helping family businesses thrive across generations. With a deep understanding of the unique dynamics and challenges faced by family-owned enterprises, we offer tailored solutions that balance the needs of the family with the demands of the business. Our goal is to help you achieve sustainable growth, ensure smooth succession, and preserve family harmony. Why Choose Us? Our Services Include: Client Success Stories: Connect With Us: At Business Consulting Resources we are dedicated to helping your family business not only succeed but flourish across generations. Let us partner with you to build a legacy of prosperity, harmony, andenduring success. Discover how Business Consulting Resources can help your family business achieve its full potential. Contact us at 808-545-4111 or jean@bcrhawaii.com to schedule a complimentary consultation.

In part two of this conversation with Laurie Foster, you’ll get a deeper dive into what Laurie’s experience working with families in business is like and hear about some common insights Laurie has gained as well as what families in business can do to be prepared for their future. BCR: Have you had experiences in the past that have helped you consult families more successfully? Foster: There is no cookie-cutter approach to helping family businesses in transition. There are however tools, approaches, and frameworks that we use to engage in the issues and to develop successful solutions. Developing a framework and using tools that work is helpful. What people want to know is that they’re not the worst family in the world and that other families are going through similar situations and that there is an end to the tunnel. I often share stories of other families and how they have navigated their journey to succession. I also have them talk to a past client who can assure them that others have gone through difficult transitions and that they’ve come out to the other end relatively unscathed. All that being said, all family situations have their unique challenges. The path is often difficult, but our experience is that perseverance and commitment to the process works. BCR: What do you see are typical problems that families face? Foster: A typical challenge is that the kids think they are more competent and the parents are reluctant to let go. The next generation often comes into the business with great confidence, they want to affect change that seems obvious to them and they are often impatient with the older generation reluctant to accept their ideas. The older generation is comfortable with the way they have conducted business over decades and change is difficult. Especially when they have often not had experience with the next generation in the business and confidence needs to be built. To address this, we encourage the next generation to start with smaller projects and to build success and confidence over time. BCR: What is the hardest thing about working with families in business? Foster: Dealing with all of the family dynamics is without question the biggest challenge. Understanding all of the family and non-family personalities and trying to get people to adapt and modify behavior as opposed to take a more confrontational approach is key. It is also difficult to get people to actually sit together and talk honestly and openly. Forcing the discussion can be uncomfortable but can also be extremely beneficial to resolve difficult issues. We know we don’t have all of the answers to this but we do have a process and can facilitate these discussions and let the process work. It really does take time and you can’t erase the history of the people or the business. BCR: How can families be better prepared for the future of their business? Foster: Establishing a Family Council or Family Board is a great way to engage family members in the business. These entities often meet periodically to discuss business and family initiatives and issues. Starting early and getting the kids engaged about what the business is, the opportunities it represents, and their responsibilities as an owner, active manager, or employee in the future is beneficial. This helps them understand at an early age that the family business is a responsibility of theirs that they have to prepare for, whether they actually work in the family business or they will become an owner of the family business. Family members should also work in another business before going directly into the family business to bring outside views and practices to the family business. BCR: What outcomes are you looking for at the end of a consulting engagement? Foster: A successful transition is the goal. Those involved have transitioned to another role and/or life pattern that they are comfortable with and the business has successfully transitioned leadership and often ownership. When all parties know where their next path is and aren’t fighting the process anymore, we know we’ve succeeded. The most important success is that the family relationships are not only intact but strong. The end game may not be perfect for all due to family circumstances, but the solution evolves over time. When the family can look back from the other side and recognize how difficult it was but how grateful they are to have a strong family, that is success. BCR: What advice do you have for those thinking about going into business with their family or those already in business with their family? Foster: People often focus on the difficulties of a family business, but there are so many positives to a family business. Trust is the biggest. Families tend to trust each other more than anyone and you can’t buy that. You have something no one else has as a family and can take that advantage and capitalize on family-based trust. If folks are going to get into a family business, it’s important to separate family and business. Little things like calling your parents by their first name to separates the business and family. Trying not to take business decisions personally is often necessary. If you combine family and business, it often goes awry. One can either jeopardize the business or worse yet jeopardize the family relationship. We often ask family members to explicitly define the relationship between the family and the business. Most often they choose (and we encourage) the following: Family comes first but not to the detriment of the business. That one statement guides business and family decisions. Business Consulting Resources has been championing successful transformations for 40 years and providing a comprehensive portfolio of consulting service solutions to help you solve complex problems. Reach out and let’s talk!

In the next two-part series of blog posts, we’ll be sharing a conversation with one of BCR’ssenior consultants and partners, Laurie Foster. Laurie earned her BA in Economics and MBAfrom Stanford University and then launched a 15-year consulting career on the East Coast withBain & Company and Mercer Management Consulting. At BCR, Laurie works with Hawaii CEOs and senior management teams in leadership and governance, strategic planning, and organizational effectiveness all with an emphasis on implementation and change management.  She leads BCR‘s Family Business Consulting practice and has had extensive experienceconsulting and working with family businesses in Hawaii. In addition to her BCR work withfamilies, Laurie grew up in a family business and understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities. In this interview, we talk with Laurie about her experience in consulting with family businesses and how engagements with family businesses work, and what families can do if they are interested in succession. BCR: What do you do at BCR with respect to Family businesses? Laurie Foster: Our mission is to achieve the succession goals of families and to make the transitions smoother than what it might be otherwise. The succession path can be quite bumpy and we try to make it less bumpy and if possible, accelerate the process. The first step is to clarify the succession goals which may include achieving wealth, making a fast transition, ensuring a long-lasting family legacy, ensuring the employees are protected and/or defining a fulfilling life after succession. Once the goals are established, the path to getting there is defined. Families explore options such as a family member transition, an internal non-family transition, recruiting a new leader, or selling the business. We encourage families to pursue two options seriously because any one option might fall through. Another option allows for the family not to start from scratch if that happens. BCR: How did you get interested in working with family businesses? Foster: I specialized in quality management and re-engineering on the East coast, which was a hot topic for many years. Once I got to BCR I realized that family businesses and succession were a niche that was fast emerging and was not well served. It was also an area that was much more difficult/murky in my view than many more common business issues I had experience with. Working with families was more challenging and I knew early on it was an area that I wanted to tackle. BCR: Does succession come up from the beginning or is that something you suggest and push the family towards? Foster: Ten to fifteen years ago, we would have to initiate the discussion regarding successionwith families. Typically, the generation in control did not want to address it and often pushed itaside as something they would deal with internally. The more we discussed family dynamicsand succession with families, it became clear that an outside advisor with experience would bevery helpful, especially in preserving the family relationships. Fast forward, today people call us for help in family business transitions. With baby boomers retiring and next-generation Gen X and Z emerging often with more aggressive styles, the need for outside assistance is welcome. People now understand the difficulty of succession and the very negative impact if succession fails. Families appreciate the structure that we provide and how we are able to walk businesses and families down the succession path. Once we set expectations and understand the landscape then we figure out the starting plan and understand that we’ll be modifying the plan as we go. We always come back to the plan if it changes and use the main framework as a working model going forward. The family is always dealing with strife and we have to bring them back to the structure they have. BCR: Once a family commits to succession advisory work, what is the typical path you take toward succession? Foster: I have to laugh when you say “typical” because there is no such thing in family business consulting. Having said that, we always start with what we call a “diagnostic” of the family and the business to get a strong sense of the players and the business environment that they are operating in. This first step is critical in understanding the people dynamics, personalities, goals, and company operations to determine the most effective approach going forward. That process can take 2-3 months, which is sometimes hard for clients to understand as many want results fast. We have to explain that often they’ve spent 20, 30, or 40 years building an ecosystem and that we’re going to need time to craft an approach to transitioning it for the future. Once the succession end game is established, we often address several main areas. Development of the successors is common, which may include leadership development, skills enhancement, gaining greater knowledge of the business, and more. We also often focus on strategic planning for the business. The business strategy dictates what skills are needed by the leadership team. If younger family members are involved, it is great to get them engaged in the future direction of the business. Typically, mom or dad are in charge of that and now we are asking their opinions! We also often get involved in estate planning for the older generation. This may include the transfer of business ownership and/or other aspects of a larger family estate. Tackling operational issues may include institutionalizing greater structure and accountability, which older-generation family businesses are typically not the best at. The incoming generation usually wants this structure but it takes time to get the older generation to embrace this. A common denominator for all of this work is addressing family dynamics. We help the family run the business as a business yet the familial relationship is often intertwined. Separating family and business is hard for everyone involved including the non-family employees. There are a variety of individual and team dynamics tools that we use to work on building strong functional dynamics. Business Consulting Resources has been championing successful transformations

Do you really know the value of your business?   Ken Gilbert and Dan Tabori, Mergers & Acquisitions Experts at BCR, sit down with Mark Imperial to discuss M&A: how COVID and the “great resignation” have impacted M&A activity (you might be surprised!), selling or buying a business for the first time, and important considerations (and common mistakes) if you’re thinking of selling – and the work that happens pre-transaction to increase the value of your business and ensure success.    Host Mark Imperial: Mark Imperial is a Best Selling Author, Syndicated Business Columnist, and Host of numerous business shows spotlighting leading experts, entrepreneurs, and business celebrities. Mark is also the media and marketing strategist and voice for some of the world’s most famous brands. www.markimperial.com  

Family Business Forum: Own Your Worth How local family businesses can take full advantage of the talents of everyone in the family – regardless of gender or age. DATE: Wed, November 18, 2020 TIME: 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm We will present results of the 2020 WLife (Women Leaders In Family Enterprises) research examining the role of gender in business from the perspectives of the next generation of leaders: Millennials and Gen Z. The topics include biases within their own companies and their industries; opportunities and challenges they see; and their views of previous generations of female leaders in their families and how those women affected them. We will also provide insights from UBS’s global “Own Your Worth” research, including how women can take control of their personal finances and how we can all encourage a greater level of women’s financial participation. The conversation will also address topics including imposter syndrome, princess syndrome, gray divorce and other obstacles to financial security. These are not just women’s issues – they are everyone’s issues. Read the Full Article and learn more about the panelists here: