Recently I have read several articles and attended several keynote addresses where the topic of mentorship seemed to be of particular interest to our next generation. Many similar questions are being asked, such as: How do I find a mentor? What type of mentor do I look for? Are there different kinds of mentors?

 
In one instance, the mere idea of mentorship was scoffed at as being archaic to the new generation, and that it implied a long term relationship that many younger adults would resist getting involved in.
 

The responses to the questions and comments were as varied as the students asking them, and I found myself struggling with what mentorship actually means and how does it apply to family business.  (Read more from Shauna Feth and add comments.)

  

For any family business facing a transition from its founders to the next generation, several fundamental questions must be addressed: What are the assumptions behind the company's culture and values? Are these assumptions helpful or harmful to succession? Do the culture and values lead to artifacts that serve as physical evidence of the company's mission?
 
To uncover some helpful assumptions, consider two companies that have enjoyed multiple successful generational transitions: SC Johnson and Son and the J.M. Smucker Company. SC Johnson was founded in 1886 when Samuel Curtis Johnson, at the request of his customers, created a preservative for hardwood flooring sold by his company. To create the product, he studied how Europeans preserved the wood floors in manor houses, and then he developed a formula that he perfected in his bathtub. The company's culture, in part, is based on an underlying assumption of "doing." The resulting value is, "We will not stop doing until the customer is satisfied." The artifact is the founder's bathtub, which played a central role in the company lore.  (Read more from David Adelman and add comments.)

In his book, "Outliers," Malcolm Gladwell speaks of many topics relevant to leadership, management, competence and family business.  He argues, and with good reason, that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of focused effort to develop a skill, even more to be come skilled to the point where others call you "gifted" in that skill.  Here are a few seemingly unrelated matters that required 10,000 hours, or more, of preparation.

  

Daniel Barenboim is a world famous conductor, pianist and jazz musician.  Whether at the keyboard or conducting from the podium, he is powerful and elegantly subtle, such that the music he produces communicates great passion and awareness.  He didn't start out at that level - it took years of effort to develop and refine his craft.  To witness him in performance is an opportunity to observe true genius at work.  What you witness and hear is the result of many multiples of Gladwell's observation that 10,000 hours of preparation are a minimum requirement for true competence and mastery. (Read more from David Bork and add comments.) 

It's time to change the rules of communication.
 
The world is changing all around us.  And many of the topics that people shied away from years ago are at the forefront of public debates today.  Once upon a time, it was taboo to discuss things like gay rights, teen pregnancies and family conflict - but one look at your television guide and you'll see that times have changed.  So where do family business issues stand today?  Are families in a better position to openly discuss challenges they encounter when working together or are conversations still kept private as families shield themselves from possible judgment?  (Read more from Andrea Rubinfeld and add comments.)

Investing too much working capital in a business results in lost opportunity.

  

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