Last Monday, June 21, the fourth session of the Family Business Course: Key aspects for its competitiveness and durability (13th Edition) was given by María Beltrán, Family Business Consultant.
María Beltrán led a session focused on emotions and shared culture, and began by asking the attendees do we want to have a family business?, to guarantee the family legacy the owners of the EF have a great sense of responsibility so that this legacy lasts over generations, always focusing the vision towards profitability and keeping the family together , through the values that are at the heart of the whole shared culture.
With the interaction of the attendees, they highlighted the values of the Family Businesses, among them they agreed on: resilience, honesty, union, responsibility, tradition, loyalty, culture of effort, recognition, generosity, enthusiasm, trust and respect. Values are very important for family businesses and the three distorters of the Family-Business relationship: Power, money and work.
The session continued by highlighting the values that should be transmitted in the family:
- Set an example
- educate
- meritocracy
- Respect for individualities
- Documenting Family History
Later, Maria stressed the importance of the Family Council, a body relatively little used by business families, but which can be very useful to facilitate family cohesion and, at the same time, promote a positive contribution of the family to the business. She added that the role of the Family Council is twofold, on the one hand, it strengthens the will to remain an entrepreneurial family throughout successive generations and provides the basis for its continuity. On the other hand, it promotes family cohesion and ensures attention to the interests of its members. In this sense, the management of feelings and emotions is a key aspect to achieve the necessary balance and union.
The second part of the day was in charge of Enrique Hervás, Partner – Director of the labor area at Broseta Abogados. Enrique led a session focused on the labor aspects of the Family Business.
Enrique began the session by raising the figure of Family Work as an important part of labor relations in the Family Business. It is not an employment relationship as long as there is kinship and as long as there is coexistence. He recalled that family work is excluded from the scope of the Workers' Statute, unless the status of employees of those who carry them out is proven. They shall be considered relatives, provided that they live with the employer, the spouse, the descendants, ascendants and other relatives by consanguinity or affinity, up to and including the second degree.
Later, Enrique explained the three typologies of condition of the members of the Family Business:
- Partner: holds a percentage of the property
- Administrator or Director: Part of corporate governance
- Worker: Common Employment Relationship (RLC) or Senior Management Staff (PAD)
The course will continue this Monday, June 28, when Pilar González (Professor of Psychology of the Universitat de València) and Alejandro Ríos (Partner – Director of Broseta Abogados) will discuss two topics of great interest "Conflict Management in Family Business" and "Mercantile and family protocols Organization in the Family Business".
