Successfully integrating family into business leadership while balancing family dynamics is full of complexities. As Joe Chastang shares, many private and family business owners screw it up. Thanksgiving and Christmas come around every year, and the business provides for 100+ employees.Mis-matched expectations, communication differences, and management styles can create challenging moments [...]
As Joe Chastang shares, getting your company started, running it, and being successful is a good feeling. Seeing your kids step in and do better is a better feeling. In 2015, when Joe embarked on the succession planning journey led by Jeff Faulkner and Jeff Bannon, he reviewed the action [...]
Succession planning builds value. Joe shares that one of many benefits of the succession planning process was learning how to run the company better. As a car and heavy truck dealer, Joe Chastang and his leadership team are good at selling vehicles, labor, and parts. An outside perspective focused on [...]
High-performance cultures require discipline. Formalities, efficient processes, and strategies that reward teamwork and achieving goals motivate and inspire employees to go the extra mile. As Joe shares, the succession planning process helped his leadership team focus on priorities which has resulted in managing their company, employees, and family-business dynamics. Because [...]
Familial communication patterns can create stress in the business environment. Assumptions, stereotypes, and emotional baggage often cloud judgment, reactions, listening, and getting to know someone as an adult versus just a sibling or child. Many believe a Will, Trusts, and business agreements are the crux of succession planning; however, as [...]
From Joe's perspective, succession planning is the most reasonable thing he has done to help his business. As Joe says, "Like it or not, the family business is tough." It never is "just business" when the family is involved, so it is hard to separate business and family matters. However, [...]
Integrating family into the business is a tricky process. Commonly, owners are either too easy or too hard on their kids, and with no formal process, next-generation flounders. Insecurities and resentment grow in this environment, impacting professional development and family relationships. Succession planning provides formality and discipline for the family [...]
Succession planning shows your employees you care and are committed to being around for the long haul. In addition, the business provides for many families, so engaging in long-term planning and communicating strategic plans is a talent recruitment and retention tool. Employees have certainty about their income's future and a [...]
As a first-generation business owner, Joe Chastang has built a solid and successful diversified business in downtown Houston, TX. Initially, an employee of Volvo heavy truck, starting in 1991, Joe purchased a Volvo franchise in '94 when Volvo decided to eliminate their corporate-owned stores. After nine years of ownership, and [...]
Please forgive us for being academic, but in order to fully understand business succession, we are going to define a few terms. First, an often confused first cousin, business continuity or exit planning: As the term describes, business continuity is the continued existence of a business, as in the business continues. An exit planning [...]
