In Mexico family businesses there are different personalities. Different ways of how problems are processed. Different relationships between its members. Historical traumas that become difficult to face problems. The one who owes money. Knots that seem impossible to get rid of.
Sounds familiar? Do you find yourself in that situation that makes you lose sleep at night? Have you been mistrusting your brother-in-law's gaze for months?
We recommend getting down to work, facing problems with openness and intelligence and solve them.
Speaking means understanding. We recommend getting down to work, facing problems with openness and intelligence, and solving problems.
Family members should sit down professionally to discuss and clarify agreements. Precisely in family businesses this is commonly done by implementing rules that in the jargon of family businesses are called Family Protocol. This Protocol periodically establishes collegiate bodies for decision-making, such as the Board of Directors.
Regarding the existence of a Board of Directors in family businesses, it is important to start by clarifying, why do you want a Board of Directors? Here are some situations for which its existence can be useful:
Also, the Board of Directors may interfere in determining codes of conduct in the family business. Processing disagreements based on rules, such as avoiding fights in public, outside the family environment, for example, are rules that serve as support so that work between family members may be more productive and harmonious.
In family businesses you are working in two ways. On one hand, there is the professional action linked to the company and on the other, these are relatives where the blood ties have dynamics and positions, which could be distant or unaware of each one's actions towards the company.
That’s why it is important to work in general on the Family Protocol. Its content is similar to a shareholders agreement, with specific clauses or chapters, where the core points of the company are established, such as positions, administrative bodies, how to access the positions, how the sale of shares works, how dividends work and its temporality, extraordinary situations, loans to shareholders, among others.
There is a lot to talk about. I hope you have been interested. Here we put a text that we work on at Tracer México about "identifying common objectives in family businesses helps you avoid conflicts".
We recommend looking for us on WhatsApp to move forward and start helping you define your Family Protocol.