Case Study:
A Breakdown in Family Relationships in Business

The Consulting Project:
Family Members in Business Not Speaking to Each Other

What had happened?

The father, who was the founder and President of the company, had demoted his own son and promoted his son's wife into the position formerly held by his son. They were literally entering the building through different doors to avoid having to speak to each other.

Outcome of the Project

• His son was unsuited for the position he used to hold. He had performed poorly and was personally miserable in the position, doing work that he did not like to do. Unfortunately, the father had placed him in a different position for which he was equally unsuited.

• The son's wife was the perfect fit for the position formally held by her husband. In a short time she had made changes that were putting the company back on the road to profitability.

• While the father had done the right thing for the company, his handling of the matter was so inept that the relationships were in danger of suffering permanent fractures.

Resolution

I met with the three people as a group to review my findings. I offered my opinion that the decision to replace the son with the son's wife was a good business decision. Nonetheless, as so often happens when there in the overlap of personal and professional relationships in a family-held business, the whole matter could have been handled better.

The father acknowledged that this whole affair had left him feeling uncomfortable and that he had handled the changes abruptly and insensitively. I had prepared him for this part of the conversation which included a heart-felt apology for putting both his son and his daughter-in-law in such awkward positions.

We then moved on to discuss the son's position. The son acknowledged that his wife was doing a great job in the position for which he had had been so ill-suited, both in temperament and training. I had also discovered in my conversations with him that what he really wanted to do was move out of the office and into the blue-collar operations side of the business.

The discussion ended by creating a position for the son in which he could operate as an independent contractor, driving a truck, and doing work in the field that was much more to his liking and his talents.

The father has since retired and his daughter-in-law is now President of the company. The son is still operating as an independent contractor. He likes being his own boss and working with his hands in a skilled trade. Although he had tried working in the office to please his father, he would have led a life of misery doing work he didn't like to do.