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Family Enterprise Stories Take Flight
When you write a weekly blog, you never actually turn off your antennae for ideas that may spark some new way of sharing your ideas on your chosen subject.
Over a decade ago, as I had my calling to work with enterprising families, I began sharing my thinking here 52 times a year.
A recent text exchange with my son, who had some air travel planned on the day of a snowstorm, got me thinking about airline travel, and so that’s where we’re going this week.
We’ll look at how a family that owns a plane might discuss privileges, consider how where you sit on the plane affects your experience, and what happens when your flight is delayed.
So let’s all fasten our seatbelts and put our phones in airplane mode, although I’m not sure why that’s still a thing.
Who Gets to Fly the Family Plane?
As I flash back to my FEA training I often think about the great example that was shared early on, where the family’s ownership of a business was likened to owning an airplane.
“Just because our family owns an airplane, that doesn’t mean that every family member automatically gets to be the pilot”.
The idea we were to glean from this is that ownership by the family of an asset does not mean that every family member thereby gets to play whatever role they wish with respect to that asset.
I have since shared that example several times, and the message seems to resonate in almost every case.
But some recent exchanges, both among my own family members and with clients, have also brought the idea of air travel to mind as ways of highlighting some useful family enterprise thinking.
Does It Matter Where You Sit On the Plane?
So now let’s head over to our gate to prepare for our commercial flight.
My son was preparing to fly just before a blizzard was to arrive.
As an interested Dad, I looked at the weather reports and texted him my concern and hope that he’d take off before the weather became and issue.
We’ll ignore his snarky response letting me know that he’d land at his destination before that first snowflakes were expected in his departure city, and instead concentrate on where he’d be sitting on the plane.
He was flying on the frequent flyer points of a family member (the family into which he’d recently married) and would be in business class.
That’s where it dawned on me that if the flight were delayed or canceled, that would affect everyone scheduled to fly, even those seated in the bigger, comfier seats up front.
All passengers land at the same time, although some deplane before others.
Who’s Paying for the Family Vacation?
My client families sometimes organize family vacations together and airline flights are often part of those plans.
Questions about who pays can arise, as well as whether or not they should all be on the same flight together, and even who gets to sit in what section of the plane.
Some colleagues have clients who are above all this, thanks to their ownership of private aircraft, which can bring in even more complex issues.
When families include various branches with unequal wealth, all sorts of potential conflicts can arise around planning trips together, and who pays for what.
Enjoying the Benefits of Being Part of the Family
One of the realities these families need to recognize is that each family member will necessarily have a different lived experience.
Not everyone will enjoy the benefits of employment in the family’s business.
Likewise, some will not suffer the pitfalls of working for their parents.
Some family members will enjoy the nice big comfy seats at the front of the plane and be served free drinks, while others may be crammed in a middle seat in the last row.
Attempts will often be made to make things more fair, and that’s a good thing.
But it won’t be the same for everyone, and if you are completely realistic, it can’t be the same for each and every person.
Some will go on more plane trips than others, and those who “get to travel” for work may be looked upon jealously by others.
Likewise, those who “have to travel” for work may look jealously upon those who get to stay home.
And it will always be so.
