Navigating The Intergenerational Dynamic

I joined the family business in 2006 after working for 3 years outside the company. I worked, funnily enough, in the donut business at Krispy Kreme right after university. It was a great opportunity, I met with great people, my boss at the time was a mentor for me and taught me many things. It was an extremely good experience for me and, at some point in time after my Master’s, I joined the family business. I guess, in hindsight, when you are coming out of school or coming out of higher education, you’re coming with experience from outside, your head is always full of ideas. You want to share those ideas with your family. The one thing though, is that, obviously, as an example, in 2006 when I joined the company, the business has been on the hotel side for about 20 years. So, there is a lot of learning, there’s a lot of things that you don’t know, necessarily. You might have a big toolkit to work with, but at the end of the day, you don’t necessarily know the intricacies of the business itself. So, I think listening, being very attentive to what’s around you, try to sink in as much as you can. Take your time, it’s a family business. Family Businesses are there for a long time, we’re not in the short-term business, were more in the longer-term business and I think it’s really worthwhile to take your time and bring ideas gradually, respect the fact that the people before you did a great job and then, you’re going to have your chance to be able to bring some ideas up. I think it’s a better way to build some credibility, also at the same time, not going into this opportunity and basically saying that you know it all. I think, just taking it face down, take your time and it’s going to happen at some point.