ILMA Compoundings November 2016 - 20

FAMILY BUSINESS

In Praise of Peer Groups
JoAnne Norton

A

s family business consultants, we often recommend
that family owners join peer groups. After families have
worked with a consultant to set up sound continuity
plans for the leadership of the family as well as the business,
there is something reassuring about meeting regularly with
people who are facing the same challenges. Affinity groups
are frequently offered by family business centers associated
with universities and groups such as Vistage Worldwide and
the Young Presidents' Organization's Global Family Business
Network.

Peer Influence of Vistage, published The Power of Peers: How the
Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success. I recently
interviewed Mr. Shapiro, who said, "Nothing can fulfill the same
role or bring the same value that belonging to an affinity group
can. There is a peer advantage because you are in a place where
you receive completely unbiased and objective advice in a safe
environment where you aren't being judged."

The Power of Peers

Over the last 14 years, I have facilitated three different family
business affinity groups for the Center for Family Business at
California State University, Fullerton, and I have been a speaker
for Vistage and for YPO's Global Family Business Network.
Recently, I learned about the research jointly conducted in
2015 by Dr. Donella Caspersz of the University of Western
Australia and Dr. Jill Thomas of the University of Adelaide in
Family Business Review. Their research confirmed what my own
experience had taught me: Peer groups are indeed powerful for
family businesses.

A Place and Space to Develop
Drs. Caspersz and Thomas found that family business peer
groups provide "a place where family business leaders can
develop an approach to leadership that assists them to reach
beyond material issues and also respond to the 'soul' of their
family business, which Hubler (2009, p. 254) describes as the
'indefinable essence of a family's spirit and being'" (p. 70).
Caspersz and Thomas went on to write that family business
affinity groups " ... provide members with an advisory board
that assists them with the ongoing monitoring of the strategies
they pursue to manage both family and business" (p. 71). Their
research corroborated what I had observed over the last
decade.
Information regarding the effectiveness of affinity groups has
been relatively sparse until recently. Just this year, Leon Shapiro,
the former CEO of Vistage, and Leo J. Bottary, vice president of

In the last year, I have conducted research for the Center for
Family Business at CSUF. The center has five different active
affinity groups, and 63 percent, or 26 members of the affinity
groups, with good representation from each of the five
groups, responded to the survey. When asked what they liked
best about being in a peer group, well over a quarter of the
respondents said they enjoyed being with people who were
going through the same thing they were. According to one
member:
"I appreciate the ability to have a group of likeminded business
professionals to bounce ideas off of and to ask advice of. It is also
so helpful to be able to talk about the family element of the family
business. I feel that so many people really don't understand how
much the family dynamics and politics can affect business decisions
- it is so helpful to have others who live it on a daily basis."

Vol. 66 No. 11 * 20 * November 2016 Compoundings
ILMA Compoundings November 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ILMA Compoundings November 2016
