Dan Schneider

Triggering Events: What Moves Us To Take Action
September 24, 2008

A few weeks ago, the phone rang. A reporter asked me if I was aware of the tragic death of a Minnesota business owner who had gone to Beijing to watch the Olympics. I told him that I knew someone had died, but I didn’t know much about the individual’s circumstances. The reporter told me that the victim was the CEO of a very successful fourth generation Minneapolis business. “How much more difficult will it be for family members and employees to deal with this than for a publicly held company?” the reporter asked.

Obviously, there’s the personal grief that family and employees have to face, which will only be complicated by the utter senselessness of the act itself. “Well,“ he said, “I understand that. My real question is how difficult will it be for the business to survive?”

That’s secondary to the personal loss, but it is still an important question for those who have to move ahead. “That depends on how well the family and the very special key managers have positioned the business to deal with the ‘sudden loss’ triggering event. Because the business has been around for several generations, I am assuming they have taken the necessary steps to create a leadership model that will carry them forward. I’m sure their planning did not lessen their grief.”

I read the reporter’s article after it appeared in the press. As it turns out, that family and that business were well positioned to deal with the crisis. It made me wonder how many others would have been so well positioned.

To decide how well your family and your company are positioned, take this quick test:

There are more questions we could add to this graph, but these will get you started. If you don’t have a solid line of “x’s” in the “Agree” column, then you should give serious consideration to how well your family business would respond to the “Beijing Event.”

Posted by Dan Schneider on September 24, 2008 | Comments (0)