- Preserving your family legacy
- Earning respect
- Managing human capital
Preserving your family legacy
Family gives NextGens privileged access to business, knowledge and experience, so don’t take these for granted. Young members should learn as much as they can from their family legacy. Respect the current generation’s reasons for the decisions they’ve made.
Be aware of your role and put the family’s purpose and values at the top of your agenda. Family businesses with a clear sense of company values often have higher employee loyalty, competitive advantages, and business sustainability.
Acquire knowledge, useful skills and management experience. Constantly seek out technological innovations that could benefit the business to be an agent for change. However, don’t try to do it on your own. Learn how to draw on advice and support from your family business as much as possible. And be open to mentoring.
Earning respect
Apart from understanding customer behaviour to offer the right products and services, NextGens must understand their markets as well as the team and people they work with. Every market and industry has its own appeal. Learning and understanding all aspects of the market and knowing customer behaviour, not only domestically, but regionally and globally, is necessary to see the trends and come up with appropriate strategies. When young leaders apply their knowledge in a way the business needs they will earn trust and respect.
Additionally, earning respect involves a lot of intangible elements. Pay the most attention to your team. Some company staff are experienced and much older than NextGens. Many have worked for a long time and are used to the way they work. Put extra effort into ensuring you're in the same boat with them. For instance, communicate and listen to your teammates on a regular basis will help put you and your team on the same page, moving in the same direction and achieving the same goals.
The secret to earning respect is working twice as hard, learning constantly, being respectful and, in Asian cultures, being humble. When young leaders don’t leave any stone unturned, they’ll eventually earn respect from current leaders and the people surrounding them.
Managing human capital
More than half of the NextGens believe that focussing on people management (attracting and retaining talent and upskilling staff) is one of top priorities of their family business. As a leader, this area is constantly a hard part as they need to ensure all operation, process, and people work collaboratively. Good teams consist of putting all strengths of each team member together, resulting in good dynamics and effective performance.
NextGens should know people’s perceptions of them, and also be able to assess the characters and identify the strengths of the key people in the business. Balance all strengths and unique qualities to provide a flat platform to engage with your teammates and your people. This is also an opportunity to optimise your family’s resources and network to strengthen the business. Run the business aligned with the values set out by the current generation.
In summary, to take over the entire responsibility and authority of the family business, NextGen leaders need to convince the current leaders of the family business to support you in developing skills and experience, and then to allow you the opportunity to prove your worth.
“Three things we should keep in mind when taking the leadership role are, firstly, respect and humility to people who have worked before, secondly, feel a sense of ownership of the family business, and lastly, take ethics seriously as a guiding principle for business sustainability.
Contact us
Sinsiri Thangsombat
Entrepreneurial and Private Business Leader, Assurance Partner, PwC Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2844 1000
