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Executive Interviews: Interview with Kelin E Gersick on Family Business
May 2007
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
Prof. Kelin E Gersick Co-founder and a Senior Partner of Lansberg Gersick & Associates (LGA), a research and consulting firm. He is a Management Fellow at the Yale School of Organization and Management. 
combination of education, experience,
supervision, honest feedback and a
blend of focus on the individuals
particular strengths and interests with
the need to be broadly aware and
credible in the whole range of
operations.I am also a firm believer in
the value of experience outside the
family company at least 4 6 years of
gaining skills and building credibility in
some other context. It is usually easy to
do that early in the career. What are your current research
interests in family run businesses?
I am currently doing research in two
areas: 1) The impact of the core family
dynamics relationships (husbandwife,
parent-child, siblings, cousins,
in-laws and multiple generation
families) on governance and
collaboration; 2) The role of cultural
traditions on the governance
dilemmas of contemporary family
enterprise (we have completed a
paper on Latin American culture and
are working this year on the same
analysis of Chinese and overseas
Chinese businesses). In addition, LGA
is engaged in a major research project
on the governance practices of familycontrolled
but publicly traded
companies, starting with the 1000
largest companies in the US. Is there any relationship (may be a
correlation) between entrepreneurship
and family businesses?
I am not sure what you mean by a
relationship. Most family businesses
begin as the initiative of an
entrepreneur, who through talent,
hard work and good luck, builds an
enterprise that can involve others and
is worthy of transition to later
generations. The key issue is not the
connection but the required evolution
for it to thrive. The transition from an
entrepreneurial model, dominated by
a Controlling Owner and run in a
hub-and-spoke manner from
centralized authority, to a
professionalized system with
delegation, structure and governance
capability is the most vulnerable
moment in the development of any
family business. Most do not survive
this transition, but those that do can
create a legacy that will continue to
grow for generations to come. Whats your advice to all those
young and to be launched family-run
business aspirants?
There is nothing more satisfying than
combining the worlds of work and
family love into a well functioning
system a source of pride, growth and
satisfaction. But the challenges are
great. If a family has the conditions
necessary to make collaboration and
dedication possible, then it is
certainly worth the effort.
1.
Sweden's Leading Family Owned Business Case Study
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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The Interview was conducted by Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary, Consulting Editor, Effective
Executive and Dean, IBSCDC, Hyderabad. This Interview was originally published in Effective Executive, IUP, May 2007. Copyright © May 2007, IBSCDC
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or distributed, stored in a retrieval
system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or medium electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the permission of IBSCDC. |
