Overview
One of our clients had decided to support the entrepreneurial ventures of a second-generation sibling. Even though the venture was in a very different type of business (retail and fitness) than the family had ever operated in before (they were focused on manufacturing), they had committed significant capital to the effort.
Challenge
Although this sibling had built a world-class retail experience – the facilities were excellent, the consumer experience was phenomenal – they were having trouble recruiting members, which was essential to their business model. As a result, the business was losing money and the family did not see a path forward.
This was causing significant tension as they struggled to discuss options and decide whether/how to change their investment strategy. This was particularly difficult for the leader of this venture, who had spent most of his life feeling overshadowed by his older brother and was having a hard time not taking the discussions personally – as a lack of confidence in his abilities on the part of his family.
Solution
After working one on one with each sibling to ease the immediate tensions, GTA’s approach was to take a data-driven approach to changing the conversation at the family investment strategy meetings. By leveraging our global network to prepare a market assessment, we learned that while our client family was investing heavily in luxury experiences, in other parts of the world the leading companies in this industry were adopting a more scaled-back, direct, and utilitarian approach to location design and functionality.
By presenting this feedback to the family we helped reframe their thinking about the approach for this particular enterprise and depersonalized the discussion between the siblings. There were still significant challenges involved in updating the company’s strategy, but the family had moved towards addressing those challenges from a place of unity and collaboration with a compelling strategy document to guide them.
