There isn’t always a robust divide between the personal and the Company for large family-owned businesses. As family-owned enterprises grow and scale, the business takes on an identity of its own removed (slightly) from the family’s persona that brought it to life. This divided state of affairs can exist peacefully for years, decades even. The business continues to thrive with the family that owns it often out of the limelight. However, even the slightest perceived misstep by a family member can make the division evaporate and cause a reputation management issue for the family-owned business.
A recent example of this unfortunately happened in September when the director of a large and high-profile family-owned bakery spoke out on social media in support of the political unrest in Hong Kong. The director was not just an employee but also the son of the founder. Although the posts were a ‘personal share’ on his social media feeds, they went viral, and China took exception to them. Despite the bakery’s position that the company’s primary mission was to focus on products and services without any political or religious bias, the director’s personal posts called that neutrality into question. At one of the most important times of the year for the bakery, a Chinese boycott against the company impacted the business deeply with product being shipped back or destroyed.
In the end, personal and business were never really separate.
Family owned businesses need to put a social media & media policy in place that applies to every member that is linked or associated with the family, no matter how distant. If they are connected, and possibly financially linked either now or in the future, in any way to the family business or family name, the policy should apply to them. Offering some training around this, such as media training or reputation awareness, and helping them to understand how their personal actions can impact the family business helps with this being taken on board. In this era of instant, viral communications on social media it is a lesson worth learning.