Author Archives: gustavo.mendez

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.