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  FCBs may professionalise won’t reach family firms by creating boards and appoint women to them.  Harder for women to  Less conflict with reach leadership founder  Fewer formal governance  But could be more mechanisms eg boards conducive to female  FCBs allow women more membership experience in male-  FCB board experience may dominated industries. not be recognised by large This should improve non-FCBs their ‘board-readiness’

Research approaches using secondary data  Use existing data on membership of (non-FCB) boards  Ask recruitment consultants, registers of women seeking boards  Ask governance training organisations  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