Owner To Owner Podcast

Harry Kras from Family Business Resource Centre on drawing out and dealing with the unique issues in family owned businesses

Episode Summary

Harry Kras from the Family Business Resource Centre is an expert in family business. In this episode he shares his learning over 30 years on how to make family businesses more successful while keeping the family together.

Episode Notes

@HarryKras from the @fbrc is an expert in #familybusiness. He's a self-described ordinary guy who has a passion for working with families in business together and has done now for well over 30 years.

He started his professional life as an #accountant but now considers himself a #forwardlooking #reformedaccountant and #facilitator. He's been a long-term user of the @Mindshop (an International Consulting Group) #platform and #methodology.

A routine #estateplanning exercise brought him to working exclusively with #familybusinesses, after a realisation that great #technicaladvice wasn't enough because there was so much going on below the surface in most #familybusinesses.  In our discussion we cover;

• what defines a family business 
• his definition - more than two or three family members working together in a business
• while no business is simple, combining business with family and family #values makes for a very complex situation
• #decisionmaking in commercial business, with no family interests, vs family businesses i.e. employing the best possible person for the job or finding something for a son or my daughter to give them a head start
• how each family is unique and each family has its own way of doing things
• how family businesses evolve from wanting to create a livelihood to educating and providing opportunities to increase family wealth, and then kind of slowly dragging family members in 
• family members - giving an opportunity to learn or cheap employees? Getting the kids in to do the odd jobs owner's don't want to do
• the numbers - 70% of businesses in Australia are family-owned 
• family business as an enormous employer and creator of jobs wealth within the country (common with most western economies, in India and  lots of #asiancountries)
• #trust #familyties #familyrelationships and how these can change when a business reaches certain points 
• the need to #professionalise and bring in other outside skills
• the #metaphor with cooking the roast - every family has their own way of doing it
• the reality that while each family is unique the #issues are fairly common
• access to #capital and the three F's #families #friends #fools 
• the perils of the #kitchentable or #familybarbecue - there's no break from it
• #siblingrivalries
• the issues with #succession - animosity with #sons and #daughters over
• the reluctance to airing dirty linen in public or making others aware that there's a situation or an issue going on
• @familybusinessaustralia
• discussing the #undiscussables.
• creating a safe environment where they can raise issues and avoiding #ww3

@kerrcapital.com.au