"One day all of this will be yours, my daughter/son...."
Family businesses play a vital role in the current economy, making up the majority of the UK's business sector, from large well known family firms through to local father and son (and daughter!) businesses. In the current climate, being a family business can be marketed as a unique selling point, even though families working together is one of our longest standing business traditions. Indeed, when a family business and business family are functioning well, communicating well, with pretty harmonious relationships, family businesses genuniely offer that unique selling point. Business families in conflict are a very different scenario. Businesses can fail, family feuds can go on for decades (often with the original 'trigger event' occuring in a previous generation) and a significant amount of pain ensues for the family members involved. No wonder that it is still the case that there is such a high mortality rate for family businesses in the UK.

Founding, owning, running and passing on or selling your family business can be a lonely affair and one for which many many family business members are ill prepared and trained. For this reason, I offer mentoring and therapy for those of you looking for confidential and helpful support in your current family business context.

My personal interest in this area stems from my own up bringing, 'apprenticeship' and ongoing directorship and ownership in my family's business. I know first hand the opportunities, limitations, frustrations and rewards of working in this context. I hope to have a realistic view of family businesses, navigating a line between the sometimes dewy-eyed and rose-tinted view that "it must be so lovely to work with your family" and the cynical hard-nosed view of some professionals, that the interfering, self-interested family should be extricated from the business at the earliest opportunity.

I have experienced and worked with major transitions in my own family business and those of family business clients. Having successfully (and at times, painfully) lived and worked through the ownership and management transition from the first to second generation in my own family firm (working as a sibling partnership with my brother) I am respectful of the size of the challenge and appreciative of the benefits of an effective succession process.

I really appreciate the challenge of working effectively in and for family businesses. At best, family businesses and business families can be a really creative environment for learning and training on the job. Positive values can be transmitted and well functioning families can contribute to social cohesion and healthy communities. I offer mentoring and therapy to family business members with this in mind, to create positive working and living environments where relationships can be strengthened, which in turn supports business success.


Go back to the main therapy page, go to the mentoring for family business page.