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processes, establishing clear governance, and recruiting skills from outside. Family Business is no different.<\/p>\nEvery firm will eventually reach the point when it has to professionalize the way it operates. This is done by instituting more rigorous processes, establishing clear governance, and recruiting skills from outside. Family Business is no different.<\/p>\n
In the Family Business Survey, 43% of the companies believe that the need to professionalize the business is a key priority over the next 5 years. But the family firm has another dimension which other companies have to tackle: the family itself.<\/p>\n
The issues in Family Business<\/a> are much harder to address. They are more personal, more complex, and the risks if it goes wrong are potentially terminal. Many times, family firms fail for family reasons. It is no surprise then that the progress of Family Business when it comes to professionalization is slower.<\/p>\n Professionalization<\/a> is more than a mere change in family management. A company is regarded as a professional when it has a high internal standard of performance and ethics which the company strives to achieve. A company is said to be professional when it has a culture that emphasizes on performance, consistency in rewards, adherence to the core values<\/a> of the company, strives for fairness, and treats people like adults.<\/p>\n A Family Business can be a professional when family owners are good stewards and a high level of performance is encouraged. This can be achieved when the Family Business adheres to the 6 Pillars of Professionalization<\/a> which can lead Family Businesses to be professionally managed.<\/p>\n The process Family Business Professionalization<\/a> is one with a lot of challenges. Each pillar has its own challenges, as well as strategies to take to effectively put these pillars in place. Understanding these challenges and strategies provides companies the best direction to undertake the 5 Pillars of Professionalism.<\/p>\n Interested in gaining more understanding of the 6 Pillars of Family Business Professionalization<\/a>? You can learn more and download an editable PowerPoint about 6 Pillars of Professionalization<\/strong> here<\/a> on the Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library<\/a>. FlevyPro<\/a> is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:<\/p>\n “My FlevyPro subscription provides me with the most popular frameworks and decks in demand in today\u2019s market. They not only augment my existing consulting and coaching offerings and delivery, but also keep me abreast of the latest trends, inspire new products and service offerings for my practice, and educate me in a fraction of the time and money of other solutions. I strongly recommend FlevyPro to any consultant serious about success.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n “As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”<\/p>\n \u2013 David Coloma, Consulting Area Manager at Cynertia Consulting<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n “As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant’s toolbox.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Michael Duff, Managing Director at Change Strategy (UK)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n “FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Roderick Cameron, Founding Partner at SGFE Ltd<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n “Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients’ benefits.”<\/p>\n \u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every firm will eventually reach the point when it has to professionalize the way it operates. This is done by instituting more rigorous processes, establishing clear governance, and recruiting skills from outside. Family Business is no different. In the Family Business Survey, 43% of the companies believe that the need to professionalize the business is… Professionalizing the Family Business: Getting Ready<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":4866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,85],"tags":[1587,740],"class_list":["post-4860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-organization","tag-6-pillars-of-professionalization","tag-family-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4860"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8147,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions\/8147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contextualizing Professionalization: What is a Professional Company?<\/h2>\n
The 6 Pillars of Professionalization<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/slide-1-_-Professionalization-of-family-business.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
\nThe first pillar is Attract, develop, and retain great family and non-family talent. The best position is for a family that produces a business leader with enough skills, good values, and has the ability to keep shareholders, employees, key customers, suppliers, and other loyal family leaders. A family must be realistic about its talents and passions to make rational decisions as to who will manage and lead the business.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\nThe second pillar is Ensure that the organization can always make a timely big decision. The best position would be when the business makes timely decisions about capital expenditures, organization changes, hiring of key managers or its strategy to succeed. Taking timely big decisions is essential in business more so when the business environment is very volatile.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\nThe third pillar is Strengthen family discipline and commitment towards the business. There should be enough family discipline to act responsibly towards the business and adequate dialogue about important family business concerns. Family commitment to the business is of strategic importance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\nThe fourth pillar is Respect the management hierarchy and empower employees to make decisions. Family members must respect the hierarchy of the business and must involve non-family managers in decisions. The congestion of decision making at the top of the organization generates passivity, slows progress, and stifles creativity.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\nThe fifth pillar is Create systems to ensure consistently high performance and fairness. There is professionalism when family management is systematic within its Performance Management<\/a> practices. We need to understand that systems are the fundamental driver of professionalism.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\nThe sixth pillar is Guard your core values like a hawk. Employees must embody the core values of the business and the basic ethical standards of honesty, respect and fairness. The ethical dimension of professionalization is as important as the performance dimension.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nDo You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n