Professor Mary Barrett School of Management & Marketing, U. of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Professor Mary Barrett

School of Management & Marketing, U. of Wollongong Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Family Business, Bond University

Professor Ken Moores

Australian Centre for Family Business, Bond University University of Auckland, 10 February 2012

The distinctive nature of family firms

‘Familiness’ features of family firms

Substantive mission Long-term orientation Patient capital Investment strategies involving low financial risk Strong relationships with customers and suppliers Strong brand identity and reputation

‘Familiness’ faults of family firms

 Firms owned & run by

founder or descendants

• esp. sons, are worst managed

 Primogeniture  Low financial risk because

less need for capital

 Risk aversion  less innovation

Ideal family firm board structure (Davis, 2001)

What do ‘features/faults’ mean for women in FCB leadership (C-suite or board)?

 New reporting rules

won’t reach family firms

 Harder for women to

reach leadership

 Fewer formal governance

mechanisms eg boards

 FCBs allow women more

experience in male- dominated industries. This should improve their ‘board-readiness’

 FCBs may professionalise

by creating boards and appoint women to them.

 Less conflict with

founder

 But could be more

conducive to female membership

 FCB board experience may

not be recognised by large non-FCBs

Research approaches using secondary data

 Use existing data on membership of (non-FCB) boards  Ask recruitment consultants, registers

• f women seeking boards

 Ask governance training

• rganisations

 Read family firm histories

Research approaches using primary data

 Ask FCB and non-FCB, male and female board

members directly

Conclusions

 Family firms are ‘just like any other business, except…’  FCBs may present lessons for non-FCBs on how to get

more women on boards

 Need for internal perspective in research approach