On May 30, we welcomed nearly 200 owners and leaders of family-owned firms to our Barcelona campus for the 2nd annual IESE-IEF Family Business Forum for Reflection.
Under the theme “Building the Future: Key Moments in the Evolution of the Family Business,” the event featured a roster of top-caliber speakers from diverse companies and industries, leading to highly engaging and thought-provoking sessions for everyone in attendance.
Current challenges for family businesses
During the event, I had the honor of moderating a roundtable discussion on four main topics: corporate governance, purpose, leadership and culture.
Among the speakers was Ignacio Rivera, president of Spain’s Instituto de la Empresa Familiar (Family Business Institute), who highlighted the challenges inherent in succession processes and maintaining a long-term vision, among others.
To illustrate these issues, Ignacio shared his frontline experiences at the helm of Corporación Hijos de Rivera, best known as the producer of its most popular beer, Estrella Galicia.
His comments really resonated with me, which is why I’ve decided to dedicate this post to some of the insights he explored.
Leading with purpose
Ignacio shared the motto known and lived by everyone connected to Estrella Galicia–“to be the most beloved big craft brewery in the world while generating a positive impact”–which struck me as an excellent example of a corporate purpose.
In my view, a company’s purpose represents its why, its reason for being, that the entire organization should know and embrace through a threefold alignment:
(1) Connection between emotions and thoughts > feeling what they think and thinking what they feel;
(2) Connection between emotions and actions > feeling what they do and doing what they feel; and
(3) Intentiality > doing what they think and thinking about what they’re doing.
It may sound simple, but embedding this triangle within an organization is not straightforward.
Purpose as a beacon and source of inspiration
In the case of Estrella Galicia, Ignacio explained the three essential components of the firm’s corporate purpose and how it reflects its long-term vision.
First, its mention of being a “big craft” brewery refers to the company’s artisanal heritage and resistance to standardization. Second, it underlines the firm’s aim to be “the most beloved” beer–not the most sold–in order to preserve its founding values.
Finally, its purpose points toward the need to make a “positive impact” by creating value and distributing wealth among its stakeholders and communities of operation.
In my view, creating value beyond the bottom line is critical in today’s business environment. Companies no longer focus exclusively on generating shareholder value.
Rather, they should aspire to generate stakeholder value by creating wealth, only a portion of which will go to shareholders–and not necessarily the largest portion in quantitative terms.
The value of humility
Ignacio also underscored the importance of values, particularly the value of humility.
Etymologically, the word “humility” comes from “humus”, which can be translated as “the ground we walk on.” In other words, it’s about keeping our feet planted firmly on the ground and having a rooted awareness of our surroundings.
Years back, we published a study on importance of values in family businesses from the Chair of Family-Owned Business which classified humility as a “virtue-based behavioral values.”
Our research included empirical based on a rigorous analysis of 100 family businesses. Within the category of virtue-based values, we identified integrity, respect, humility, generosity, honesty, justice and ethical behavior.
From my perspective, this is the crux of the matter: leadership guided by virtues, which serves as a compass for so many family-controlled companies around the world.
My sincere thanks to Ignacio Rivera and the other outstanding speakers for reminding us of the central role of values in the world of family business.
Photo by Pablo Arroyo on Unsplash