Monthly Archives: April 2012

I noticed many different things while watching this film:

One thing included how there was clearly a lack of succession planning. During one point at which the father was still alive, the family should have discussed clearly what would have happened if ever the father had died. Since the family did not do this, there was chaos that resulted and no one knew their clear role. Ultimately, Anneliese took control of the decision making and identified who would do what. However, although the mother’s role was helpful in some ways it was also stressful in different ways because she pressured Christopher to leave his lifestyle and make a 180 degree turn in his life. If there was a clear succession plan, then there would be no arguments regarding Christopher and his brother-in-law, as one example.

Another thing i realized was how women/daughter roles played an affect in the movie. The mother had a very strong role in the movie and was a very influential character. However in comparison, the daughter was no respected as much as Christopher and the family only listen to her flees to rehire her husband after a very long time of hostile attitudes between the daughter and the family. Also, Maria did not have much of an influential role either because ultimately Christopher had chosen the family business over his wife’s own desires. Likewise, by watching this movie we see the many dynamics that are present in a family business.

The Inheritance shows a lot of troubling family dynamics that can occur as a result of a family business. The family business, a steel manufacturer, is in deep crisis. It is a large company with a lot of debt and a recently deceased president. Christoffer has re-entered the family business in a state of upheaval and the decisions he makes have a great impact on many other people, especially the family. We have learned in class about the Parallel Planning Process, which synchronizes the needs and wants of the family and the business. In my opinion, the problem in The Inheritance was that there was no time for PPP. The business was in a state of crisis and Christoffer had to detach himself from a lot emotions in order to save the business. For example, Christoffer fires his sister’s husband because he had shown disloyalty. Even though his sister told Christoffer that she never wanted to see him again, he does not rehire him, at least not at first.
Christoffer is put in a position where he has to choose between family and business several times. Besides the example with his sister, his relationship with his wife is also put to the test. This relationship is particularly interesting because we can see it gradually deteriorate as the plot unfolds. The main issue here is that Christoffer had just started his life with his wife and then he was thrown back into the family business unexpectedly. There was no apparent succession planning so Christoffer had to devote too much time to the business or not enough time to his wife. Who do you think was more responsible for the break-up-Christoffer or his wife?

The movie the Inheritance is a movie that shows to viewers the trouble that sometimes family members has to go through when there is a lack of management practices in a family business. The movie begins with Christoffer, a very successful restaurant owner who is married to his wife Maria to whom he loves very much. His family owns a steel manufacturer business that is in deep crisis because it has contracted a lot of debt from a bank. When his father committed suicide, he left the company without a clear successor because there was not any succession planning. At this time Annelise, Christoffer’s mother called him to come home. Once he arrived home, Annelise put pressure on him to take over the management of the family business.

Although Christoffer’s heart was not in it, he felt obligated by his mother to take up the task (normative commitment). His decision was met with frustration and anger by his wife at first but later she acceded and supported him on his decision. As the CEO of the company he tried to run it as best as he could with the help of the CFO, however; the bank that has support the company with money all those years does not see him as the ideal successor because of his lack of experience in the field. Being in a position he never intended to be he was oblige to fire 200 workers, his sister’s spouse Ulrik who has been spreading rumors about him, and to merge with a French company in order to keep the company afloat.

This is the time that the movie began to be interesting for me because as a viewer I conclude up to this part that they were having only nonformal family meetings once a month I believe, and that the mother was the one who has been running the company all this time. However, what I did not see this far was any governance structure in the company. A governance system should be implemented in this company in order to guide the three fundamental parts of the family business: family, ownership and management. As we know management is what actually makes the family business run and prosper, however; management will likely be prevented from performing up to its potential if it is not backed by a solid system of ownership, which, in turn, is backed by a solid family who agrees with and supports the ownership and management structure and the decisions made by the owners and managers.

As the drama continues family problems continue to arise. Christoffer’s sister is upset with him and her mother for firing her husband. Also, Maria realized that the management task is slowly taking over Christoffer’s time and life, and as a consequence, he ignores the needs of himself and hers. At this time Annelise told Christoffer that she did not like his spouse because of her lack of character. Christopher’sister begs to him to give Ulrik back his job. He does not accede to her petition. At this time Maria told him to try to be different from his family because he was acting as a sad and cold person just like his mother. Annelise told him not to regret on things he has done for the family so far. At this point I think Christoffer has been forced by his mother to give up his personal morals in order to meet the company needs.

Again, what I saw in the movie thus far were two different roles that women played. One was played by his mother, a person who had a lot of character and leadership and as a result she was the one who took all the decisions within the company and the other played by Maria and Christoffer’s sisters, both of whom were very submissive and had a lack of character and as a result they never intended to intervene in any business decisions.

Slowly, but surely, his altered life style pushes him away from Maria, who moves back to pursue her career as an actress in Sweden. This situation pushed him further towards a nervous breakdown. This is the time his mother told him to forget about her because she was a women with not character like his father and that he was just like her. In the end, he went back to Sweden to see Maria perform and this is the time I think that he really took a decision for himself because he decided not to go to the theater to see her perform.

This was a very disturbing movie in my opinion.  Sure, it gives us a lot of insight into family business, but it also says a lot about human character and the lack of it.  Now, where do we start? Maybe with the father who didn’t have a succession plan, but very much wanted his son to be part of the family business. As the plot unfolds, I understood that it had to do with leadership and how it was really the mother who was running the business.  I have no doubt that she was partially responsible of her husband’s heart attack.  I really disliked her from the start to the end of the movie.

Just like Ed in the Blanchard family, Chris became very successful on his own, out of the family business. He had created something of value that he liked, besides people who helped him be productive and pro-active. When his father passed away, he was summoned by his mother to take his responsibilities toward the family business and let go of his previous engagements without any concern for his wife. Chris was swallowed whole by the family business.

We see him grow from being a timid CEO who was perceived as weak and useless by the stakeholders to a man that will eventually take the family business to the next level with the support of mentors such as his mother and the CFO. To me, he never grew in character. He is a weak man who will always be a mama’s boy. Let’s be real for an instant: it was not until the end that he really made a decision on his own by cutting the bridge from a life filled with love to a life chosen by his mother.

Chris’ first wife loved him and tried so hard to be the glue but was completely left out of every decision. The poor woman never had no chance to survive in such an environment and not even a son could help her keep her family together. She played by asking her husband to choose between his own and his family needs but lost to the family business.  I am just wondering what role this son will play in the future? He is first born so should have a stake in the family business if he has the potential and the desire. But, who knows what will happen with an ambivalent father like Chris. Maybe we will see a case like Dick, the ambivalent CEO. We already see that Chris’ second wife is very ambitious and patient. So…

There was no governance structure in the family business. We’ve studied that there are 3 basic parts in the family business: the business, the family, the ownership. In this movie, the business was so intertwined with the family and the boundaries between the two entities so thin that they became nonexistent.  We know that each subsystem in a family system needs to be healthy individually in order for the family to stay intact and for the business to survive as a multi-generational family business.But again it is different here.

There were several ownership meetings, formals and informals, but the sister who is also an owner was rarely present. There were also many board meetings; again the sister was left out. There was a consensus that women were kind of taboo and did not participate in the daily operations of the business. From the exterior, it was a world of men even when it was really the mother making all of the major family and business decisions. She never accepted her daughter’s involvement in the business because of what she believes is weakness but is in fact humanity in the daughter. She made Chris fire first the daughter’s husband on false pretense since there was never any proof, only assumptions. She also made him fire this man who devoted his whole life to the business and was a designer in taking it to the next level. One would argue that she did all of it for the sake of the business, but still….

I do not see any continuity in this business when the mother will die. There are still no succession plans, the advisory board is made up primarily of family members, no independent outsiders who will offer different perspective to the company issues. I can only foresee this family business turning into a corporation. The transformation already started with the merger with the French company.