Many family businesses are in an economic imbalance as they have not made a "clean" legal and emotional separation of the two social systems of family and business. But there are in fact a number of very valuable precautions that can be taken to prevent business families from losing ownership and influence in the event of a conflict and crisis, and to make family businesses more resilient to internal causes of conflict and crisis.
What entrepreneurial families can and should do has been compiled by us in a document which ends with a very helpful "family stress test" and which focuses on the key question: "How strong is my entrepreneurial family’s ability to act?” We would be happy to send you this document on request.
At this point, the aim is to support family businesses in increasing their resilience in the tough competitive environment.
In order to guarantee or regain the three most important goals of entrepreneurial families (high entrepreneurial freedom; financial independence; professional separation of family and company systems), family companies should have taken or take the following precautions:
The corporate strategy should be chosen with a view to operational effectiveness and not for the pacification/satisfaction of certain family tribes.
The business model should be "generation-compatible", i.e. "value and value-oriented".
The ability to service loans should be secured in the long term – and thus be relatively independent of economic risks.
The financing structure of the company should be independent of that of the family or shareholders.
The company management should act in conscious harmony with the family values of the family shareholders.
Anticipation of (digital) change should be an integral part of the company's management philosophy.
Our experts would be happy to explain to you in more detail how well we understand entrepreneurial families and their family businesses.
Jessica Hirsch
Partner
Dipl.-Betriebswirtin
Email to Jessica Hirsch
T +49 (0)221 91 27 30 - 68
Konrad Fröhlich
Senior Partner
Rechtsanwalt
Email to Konrad Fröhlich
T +49 (0)221 91 27 30 - 32