Legacy is an intangible, invisible power that impacts the choice making of the subsequent technology in a household enterprise. Psychologists name the motivation to construct legacy generativity, and it stems from the priority for the welfare, well-being, and safety of future generations. Creating and sustaining legacy is a manner for relations to perpetuate the household id and objective. However are legacies all the time constructive? The paradox is that legacy has been proven to result in each constructive and damaging outcomes for organizations and people. Legacy is an asset to a household enterprise when it serves as a supply of id, inspiration, and course. The draw back is that legacy can be a legal responsibility — that is the inherent paradox of legacy. Companies can grow to be so entrenched in custom and “the best way issues have all the time been” that they constrain innovation, change, and organizational agility. The problem for household enterprise leaders is to handle this legacy paradox.
Jon M. Huntsman, founding father of the Huntsman Company, passed away in 2018. After I requested his son, David Huntsman, concerning the lasting affect of his father on his function as president of the Huntsman Basis, he stated, “Having grown up in a household enterprise, my father’s affect continues to be ever-present in my life — whether or not I acknowledge that consciously or not. I do know precisely what he would say or do in nearly each enterprise state of affairs, as a result of I watched it firsthand for years. His influence, though he’s now not right here, nonetheless impacts even the little selections I make all through the day — issues I do or select to not. A part of him will all the time be with me, not simply in enterprise however in all features of life.”
Legacy is an intangible, invisible power that impacts the choice making of the subsequent technology within the enterprise, and in life on the whole. Legacy has additionally been known as the “connective tissue” that hyperlinks generations in a household enterprise. Jon Huntsman’s values, beliefs, and behaviors stay on within the lives of his descendants lengthy after his passing. Legacy begins when the values, norms, information, and beliefs of earlier generations are entrenched within the present technology. As soon as embedded, next-generation leaders grow to be the “keepers” of the household/enterprise legacy. Till legacy is adopted, the issues that make up somebody’s legacy are merely traits of the earlier technology. However as soon as rooted, legacy turns into a conviction that guides the following behaviors of the subsequent technology.
Research has proven that enterprise founders, senior generations, and oldsters are motivated to construct and maintain legacies primarily based upon the ethical and non secular beliefs, information, norms, and values that labored for them, and that they might have acquired from earlier generations themselves. Psychologists name the motivation to construct legacy generativity, and it stems from the priority for the welfare, well-being, and safety of future generations. This desire has been found to exist more in family firms than non-family firms due to an elevated feeling of ethical obligation to previous and future generations. Creating and sustaining legacy is a manner for relations to perpetuate the household id and objective.
There are a number of prescriptions within the literature explaining learn how to construct a legacy in a household enterprise. For instance, in a recent Forbes article, Stephanie Burns argues that constructing a legacy requires being the most effective at what you do, including new causes to the present legacy, honoring the present legacy, and carrying on cultural heritage. Tales, diaries, images, and household belongings equivalent to land, factories, and homes, in addition to household symbols equivalent to logos and rituals, are necessary automobiles that talk legacy. These mechanisms can signify and talk the deeply held beliefs, norms, and values that make up the legacy of the household enterprise. They can also play important roles in developing a lasting legacy for the next generation.
However are legacies all the time constructive? The paradox is that legacy has been proven to result in each constructive and damaging outcomes for organizations and people. Legacy is an asset to a household enterprise when it serves as a supply of id, inspiration, and course. Jay Barney’s research means that it could be the one actual supply of sustainable aggressive benefit for a household enterprise. Legacy is uncommon, imperfectly imitable, beneficial, and sustained inside the firm — rivals can copy merchandise and processes, but it surely’s unimaginable to repeat an organization’s legacy.
For David Huntsman, expertise along with his father can’t be copied and is, for him, uncommon and beneficial. He has realized from the expertise that solely he and his agency have had, and because of this, his father’s values and knowledge stay inside him and his agency. His father’s legacy has all the time been good for the corporate and the household, and sustaining that deeply-held legacy is rational. To do something opposite to that legacy could be a violation of the values and norms that outline their household and their household enterprise. Shifting away from legacy runs the danger of shedding the aggressive benefit that the household enterprise has all the time loved.
The draw back is that legacy can be a legal responsibility — that is the inherent paradox of legacy. Companies can grow to be so entrenched in custom and “the best way issues have all the time been” that they constrain innovation, change, and organizational agility. Relations might really feel trapped by the previous and should subsequently face an ethical dilemma once they’re pushed to maintain the legacy and brush apart a need to construct their very own imaginative and prescient and technique, which could in the end be essential to maintain and develop the corporate. Therein lies the paradox: feeling the necessity to stay the embedded values, beliefs, behaviors, and information of the previous, which could battle with a need to innovate and transfer away from the legacy that has all the time outlined them. Sturdy adherence to legacy can create organizational inertia that makes it troublesome for leaders to switch the agency’s technique, model, and routines when essential.
The problem for household enterprise leaders is to handle the legacy paradox. It’s a battle between the top and the guts. The pinnacle would possibly decide {that a} change is required primarily based upon rational logic and evaluation of the state of affairs. The center might need an emotional attachment to the previous. The result’s a battle between the target situational evaluation and subjective intestine beliefs. Ought to the chief keep true to the household legacy and heritage that has all the time labored prior to now, or ought to the chief redefine the legacy, the household id, and the agency that might be essential for the long run? It is likely one of the most troublesome, gut-wrenching selections that each one household enterprise leaders should finally make. No household enterprise chief needs the excellence of destroying the household enterprise and every part that the household represents. It’s the main cause why we see household enterprise leaders justifying “socio-emotional” efficiency equivalent to household unity and concord over doubtlessly greater monetary efficiency in a household enterprise.
In the long run, it’s a matter of making and molding a legacy that may evolve and grow to be part of the household enterprise tradition. A crucial a part of a profitable household enterprise legacy is being the most effective at what the enterprise does, and having leaders who’re constantly contributing the competencies and methods wanted to maintain it that manner. A profitable legacy can’t be so rooted prior to now that adjustments within the group can’t be successfully addressed. The keepers of the legacy should handle the troublesome process of managing stability and change. The chief should decide which values, norms, and beliefs are timeless and legitimate no matter circumstances — for they’re the core of the legacy that should outline the id of the household and the enterprise going ahead. Beliefs, behaviors, and information which can be not core restrain essential change and have to be challenged for the enterprise and the household to outlive and thrive. On this manner, the enterprise can retain its core id and maintain its aggressive benefit.
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