Digital Dealer - January 2018 - 13

BUSINESS AND EMOTIONAL STRESS TURNS
WHAT ONCE WAS A HIGHLY FULFILLING, AND
PERHAPS FUN ENDEAVOR, INTO A REAL DRAG."
within a dealership.
Learning the business and
moving through the ranks
together they decided to
invest in, and over the
course of five years, buy
out the previous owner.
Because they had complimentary skills, matched
ambition, and were financially invested equally
they developed a 50/50
partnership. Through
the last 20 years both
Bob and Joe have each
gotten married and have
had kids of their own. As
their families have grown,
so too has the size of
their business, to almost
triple, employing over 500
people.
Today, Bob is still as
passionate about the
car business as the day
he started. He wants to
continue to grow and
diversify. Joe on the other
hand is finding other interests to occupy his time.
He is less passionate and
has become less present;
yet very much involved in
overall business decisions. His oldest daughter
(20 years old) and some
"friends of the family" are
showing interest in the
business.
The partners have
different opinions and
with their varying levels of
contribution and passion
to the future, this affects
the balance of what
each believes to be the

strategic direction of the
business. They do not
see eye-to-eye on compensation plans based
upon their contributions,
strategic future vision, or
the appropriate way to integrate and develop family
member employees in the
business. Partner conflict
is impacting teamwork
and performance.
What started out as a
simple entrepreneurial
partnership has evolved
into a family-owned

BE BLOOD-RELATED
TO BE CONSIDERED A
FAMILY BUSINESS

Regardless of DNA,
Bob and Joe truly cared
about each other and
the welfare of each of
their strategic partners,
manufacturers, managers,
employees, and families.
Without a unified vision
for the future and plan for
getting there, they quickly
realized there was no
telling where the business
could end up, especially

FAMILY AND
BUSINESS ARE AN
OXYMORON. FAMILY
IS AN ENVIRONMENT
OF LOVE AND
ACCEPTANCE, WHERE
BUSINESS IS AN
ENVIRONMENT OF
'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
FOR ME LATELY?'"
business. Consider your
scenario and where you
are today. Even if you
"hold all the keys to the
castle," there will be a
day that someone shows
interest in your business.
As soon as someone else
is involved, you are now
involving their future goals
and desires, and they
may not align with yours.
Therefore, consider the
following:
YOU DON'T HAVE TO

with constant market,
technology, political, and
economic changes. As
a result, they engaged
in a strategic planning
initiative, involving their
key leaders to develop a
unified vision. As a result,
they:
 Aligned Bob, Joe,
and key managers' visions
for the future and identified key resources needed
to achieve the 3-5-year
goals on a rolling basis

 Developed action
steps, due dates, and responsible parties to drive
the organization towards
the unified goals of the
owners and leaders

THERE IS NO
BUSINESS GAIN
WORTH A FAMILY LOSS

By adopting the family
business golden rule, they
could find the expertise
needed to address some
emotionally challenging
topics such as each other's vision for the future,
passion for the dealership,
motivation, compensation,
and vision for eventual
exit. As a result, they:
 Clarified each partner's roles and responsibilities based upon
strengths, weaknesses,
expertise, and areas of interest to remove ambiguity and to clarify reporting
and decision-making
authority
 Developed compensation and bonus
structures unique to each
owner's role in the organization
 Took into consideration each owner's exit
strategy and 3-10 year
"phase-out" period to
make room for successor
development
 Implemented a
strategy for each owner to develop financial
independence from the
business to support their

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

Continued on pg. 14
JANUARY 2018

13
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