The Filipino Entrepreneur

Issues regarding the survival of business successions were mostly unresolved and this is why only 40 percent of family business survives to the second generation, 15 percent to the third and merely one percent to the fourth generation according to statistics. In my own experience, we have a family business before and really business succession is a great issue especially if the family members are not really attached to each other. If there are no moral values instilled to the members of the family, it will be a lot more complicated. Since money is the value system on most of the business owners and their immediate families, the true meaning of harmonious relationship is set aside. And with that scenario, our business didn’t even survive to the second generation.

Fortunately, there is a workshop that address on this issue from the Gokongwei School of Management in Ateneo de Manila. The aim was to counsel the family members on succession issues. The workshop is a by-product of the quarterly business breakfast round table discussion, where a resource person would talk about family business issues such as sibling rivalry or conflict resolution, patriarch founders who refuse to relinquish management to the next generation and to those younger generations who were unprepared to handle the responsibility.

But on the contrary, this will depend on how open minded the families are especially the owner or the founder. There was a saying “You can lead them to the water, but you cannot let them drink”. In some cases, the founder might be too secretive and don’t trust easily and also there is a generation gap issue. Most of the time, I think, the eldest sibling are those who were not prepared to handle responsibilities and because the younger one are inexperienced, they were not given a chance.

[tag]entrepreneur,business,succession[/tag]