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The Case: The Dying Patriarch |
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David was disgusted. Under his incompetent, abrasive Uncle Al’s stewardship, he'd seen the privately held manufacturing company the man had founded with David’s late father lose millions, nearly going down the drain. Now Uncle Al was dying of cancer. Was there anything David could do to save the situation? |
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The Players
David, a 35 year old Harvard Business School graduate, the son of the late co-founder of the company
Uncle Al, David’s mother’s brother, and the surviving founding partner.
The Extended Family.
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The Problem
Uncle Al treated David like an incompetent adolescent, keeping the financial affairs of the company to himself. He was legally allowed to do this under the terms of the agreement he’d made just before his partner’s death seventeen years previously. Dying, David’s father had included a legally invalid expiration date to Uncle Al’s contract as CEO. For seven years, David had watched, helpless, as his uncle mis-managed the company and squandered it's assets, quieting the family members with yearly doses of cash. All of David’s appeals and suggestions were brushed off, even as the company continued to lose money at an accelerating rate. In a year everything would be gone.
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The Smart Relationship Insight
It was all about Uncle Al’s personality. We concluded he might act rationally only when business issues were framed in terms of family loyalty. Further, we came to believe the company was a proxy for his body. Perhaps, if he had to die, it would have to die as well.
Even so, we predicted a possible window of opportunity in the last months of the patriarch’s life, once it became clear that even his steely control could not save him. We urged David not to confront him any further (in fact, to become downright maternal toward him) but to build support among family members, using communication techniques particularly suited to each. There was a particular focus on Al’s sister, as difficult as Al himself, but someone he would occasionally listen to. We believed it would make sense to mount a more aggressive campaign only as Uncle Al was entering the terminal phase of his illness.
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Outcome
The strategy was successful: as he weakened, Uncle Al’s attention turned back to the family and to his legacy. He agreed to a rational plan for the sale of the company (quietly developed by David over the previous months) which was accomplished two weeks before he died, at a price high enough to yield meaningful income to David and the extended family.
We sat in my office and marked Uncle Al’s passing with a glass of wine. There was no toast.
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