Mexico, with a long way to go in professionalizing the family business: independent directors

The attachment to the family that distinguishes Latin American countries may be a great emotional virtue, but when it comes to setting up family businesses it poses serious challenges for its sustainability.

That is why in places like Mexico it is crucial to strengthen the professionalization of these businesses, so that they are not seen only as sources of self-employment or simple means of subsistence for the family, but as units of value creation, says Fernando Cantú, a member of the National College of Independent Professional Business Advisors (CNCPIE).

“In Latin America we have that slightly myopic vision of seeing the family business only as a means of self-support. We do not see all the alternatives that there may be and we close ourselves off, in our family, and that prevents us from achieving a broader development”, says the person in charge of dissemination of the CNCPIE in an interview.

Already installed in the field of geographical characterizations, he refers to the contrast that exists at this point with respect to what happens in other places, mainly in the Anglo-Saxon world.

“It is more common to see a different sense of ownership there. People put their company with the intention of generating value and that value happens to be salable. In these (Anglo-Saxon) markets it is not that family businesses disappear, but that they are bought, sold, and merged”, says Cantú.

But attachment is not the only emotional vein that can put the family business at risk. Entrepreneurship often also has its “romantic” side associated with the illusion generated by starting a new project.

“The family business faces many challenges and they have to do in the first place with the fact that you often undertake with great enthusiasm and with your heart and with very little head. Sometimes we entrepreneurs do it with great enthusiasm and not always with the experience to be able to do it”.

And he adds: “With certain frequency we do not know how to listen to ideas, practices and recommendations that have already been tested and that are there and that can help us make our company more profitable, more productive, that it lasts longer, that it becomes more sustainable. ”.

In this understanding, one of the work aspects of the CNCPIE is the promotion of business professionalization, through the dissemination of best practices and training, mainly in what refers to corporate governance.

Promotion of professionalization

Precisely, this October 20, the Council will hold its second Symposium on Corporate Governance at the Bosques Entrepreneurs Club in Mexico City, which will be entitled “Maximizing the Sustainability and Sustainability of Family Businesses.”

“The intention is to convey the message that corporate governance is not something complex, it is not difficult to get it going well. What we want is to give ideas on how to govern a company so that it delivers more value. Starting with customers, suppliers, employees and the owners themselves,” says Cantú, who has more than 30 years of experience as an area director in companies such as Walmart, Aeroméxico and Telmex, in addition to more than 16 years as an independent and related director.

The transversal axes of the symposium will be sustainability and sustainability. The first will deal with the development of ideas on the rational use of the company’s resources (material and human), while the second will attract everything related to good governance practices that guarantee business continuity.

Meanwhile, they will address topics such as the family office, the creation of effective boards of directors and the value of diversity within them, the importance of managerial succession or conflict management to preserve family relationships and the business.

What is the goal? For now, Fernando Cantú shares a piece of information: the family business in Mexico has a life expectancy of seven years, which is why, from the outset, it should be seen as the minimum threshold to be overcome in terms of longevity for companies that claim to be sustainable and generate income. value to society.

octavio.amador@eleconomista.mx