NEWS AND INSIGHT NEWS & INSIGHT
BACKSTABBING, DECEIT AND LIES – WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM WATCHING TV SHOWS LIKE SUCCESSION
SCHOOL: Cork University Business School COUNTRY: Ireland
If you haven’t watched Succession , what have you been doing? The show follows the Roy family, who own a media and entertainment empire. As the patriarch of the family, Logan, ages, it becomes clear a new leader is needed, with the siblings competing with one another to be the one who will take over the position of power in the business. While the show provides a dramatic case study of how not to treat your family, Catherine Duggan, a PhD candidate at the Department of Management and Marketing at Cork University Business School, argues that the show does demonstrate the real life complexity of deciding the future of a business. In an article she wrote for Ireland’s National Public Service Media, RTE, she notes that family businesses are the most dominant form of business globally. In Ireland, they employ 68 per cent of the workforce and generate over half of the state’s annual turnover. Most family businesses (70 per cent) want their company to transition to the next generation; however research shows that only 30 per cent will survive this transition, with only 12 per cent making
it to the third generation and four per cent to the fourth generation. What makes it such a tricky situation is the crossover between family and business issues. Duggan warns that issues such as family values, competencies, dynamics and expectations can be more difficult to solve than any of the tax, asset transfers and buy-sell agreements that may emerge. Like in the show, it’s the family dynamics and dramas that get in the way of a successful succession. In the show, Logan Roy encourages his children to go for blood and fight for success through power play. However, Duggan instead suggests that a family forum is created. This would aim to solve any conflicts with training, education and mentoring. She also suggests that there should be a clear plan on what will happen during the succession of the company before it is needed or implemented. EB
SHARE YOUR NEWS AND RESEARCH UPDATES by emailing AMBA & BGA’s content editor Tim Banerjee Dhoul at t.dhoul@amba-bga.com
Ambition | MAY 2023 | 13
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online