FB ACADEMY
“We had a board that decided strategy, but then
this owner-manager was seeing opportunities and seizing them. It did not matter what we did,” he says.
DOUBLE VISION? Yet some tension between the management and the supervisory board may not be a bad thing. “Typically the corporate group will feel the
family is not interested or they are meddling, and the family board are always feeling information is being withheld or they are being asked to take on too much responsibility,” says Sian Steele, the UK-based head of the family business team at PwC. “There needs to be clear accountability and clear
[responsibilities] for both groups with a clear and transparent structure for communication.” Achieving the ideal balance between the
management and supervisory board involves ensuring that the board is not so large that it overwhelms management, nor so small that its voice can easily be dismissed, says Patricia Angus, founder and chief executive of the New York-based Angus Advisory Group. Its structure should be tailored to the needs of each business.
“Both family and non-executive directors should
be chosen based on the expertise that they add, based on very clear guidelines to best serve the needs of the family and business,” says Angus, who is also an adjunct professor and founding director of the family business programme at Columbia University’s Columbia Business School. “A family member on the supervisory board
should ideally provide perspective on the family’s values and goals for the business, in addition to— or instead of—business insights. “Business insights alone are generally not
sufficient at the board level; directors should be adding deeper perspective.” A non-executive director, says Angus, would
be expected to provide input on industry trends, comparable businesses, and the broader context in which the business operates. “The best supervisory board will consist of a
well-designed mix of perspectives that matches the owners’ long-term vision for the business,” she added. “And, in the family business context, special care
should be taken to understand the family’s values, vision, and goals beyond the business.”
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF PATRICIA ANGUS, PETER KLEIN, PWC, THOMAS ZELLWEGER
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