Family business experts slate second conference

CEBU, Philippines – As market competition gets more intense, a group of business experts has scheduled another family enterprise conference to encourage family-run businesses in Cebu to employ professionalism in their companies.

Led Premier Family Business Consulting spearheads another "Family Enterprise Excellence Conference" slated on October 26 at the Radisson Blu Hotel to help Cebuano families engaged in business to understand the risks of sustaining a family business without the intervention of experts.

Despite the recent active campaign of educators and consultants for family-run enterprises to employ professional help, still “not many families in business realize that there is such a specialized field to help them," said Premier Family Business Consulting founder and financial adviser Jonathan Ramos.

Since this is a new field, Ramos said there is a need for family business scientists or experts to educate family corporations on raising the bar of their respective company's operations, especially in the fragile global competition-driven business environment.

Sibling rivalry, entitlement, management transitions are just few of the dozens of problems that a family corporation should settle before the company's health is threatened, said Ramos.

The conference will hold discussions on the different challenges that owners and successors (usually the second and third generations) should be aware of to sustain the business.

A latest survey conducted by John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM) of the Ateneo de Manila University, found out that family harmony is the obvious "poison" why a family-run business being pass on to the next generation has difficulty to continue.

In the survey of 150 participants, only 33 percent have vision-mission statements and only 45 percent have strategic plans.

The survey further revealed that succession in the family business, of which the family members will agree who will lead and take over the business, is the top problem faced by family-run businesses in the Philippines today.

Ramos echoed the result of the survey stressing that family harmony is the number one concern of the family-owned businesses today, with growth and direction as the second most ranked concern.

Financial and other management issues such as management, marketing personnel ranked the lowest.

Family conflict is the most common downfall among family businesses, which often results to the enterprise closing down when the founder is no longer around.

Global statistics posted that only three out of 100 family businesses are likely to sustain and thrive with the second to third generation taking the reins of the business.