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| Sylvia Vincent, president of GWEV Publishing, and daughter Heidi, director of marketing and business development. |
Family businesses are seeing an increasing number of women taking the helm.
An American survey by MassMutual Financial Group this past January found that, while 10 per cent of current CEOs are women, 34 per cent of the businesses surveyed expect their next CEO to be a woman.
A joint published report by MassMutual and Babson College in Massachusetts says woman-owned family businesses are, on average, more productive than those run by men and are more likely to be "good corporate citizens." Female owners also tend to pay greater attention to the issue of leadership succession.
According to the study, woman-owned family businesses averaged annual revenues of US$26.9 million in 2002, with some reporting annual sales as high as US$1 billion. Most woman-owned family firms are in the second generation of operation and are primarily active in the same industries as male-owned firms: manufacturing, wholesale, retail, service and construction.
Charles Armstrong, partner of KPMG's Centre for Family Business, says the role women are playing in family businesses is reflective of a general trend.
"Women are playing a greater role in society," says Armstrong.
Celebrating its 25th year in business, Shepherd's Fashion Accessories started off in a kiosk on Sparks Street before expanding into the Rideau Centre 20 years ago. Another location was opened in Bayshore Shopping Centre after the Sparks Street location closed a few years ago.
Marlene Shepherd has worked side-by-side with her mother, Trudy, until recently, when Trudy decided to retire – sort of. Mother and daughter have already settled the succession issue, with Marlene buying out Trudy's share in the business. However, Trudy remains active and is still involved in the buying process.
Marlene, who has also worked as a journalist, says she is happy to have gone into business with her mother, who owned and operated a country hotel in Cumberland for 21 years.
"Both my mother and I have talked about it before. I don't think either of us would have done this if we had been alone, so it was very supportive to have somebody to go into this adventure with," she says. "It offered a lot of support, so when one was indecisive or reluctant, the other had the courage to push ahead, so I think we fed off each other."
Managing conflict is an issue most family businesses face and the Shepherds were no exception.
"Certainly, there would be conflicts in type of management or decision-making on buying but, basically, we would talk it out and each would argue their point and occasionally one would have to give in to the other and it would depend on how strongly you felt on it," says Marlene. "If I felt (Trudy) was really strongly adamant on one way and I still couldn't convince her to change her mind, I would agree with her and vice versa. You just give in on some points. It was never to the point that we had to bring someone else in or it disturbed our relationship – we've worked together for 25 years."
Overall, Marlene has found owning a business less stressful than the corporate world and enjoys being independent and in control of the decision-making process.
"I think women adapt very well to their own business. I am not a visionary, I'm more of a put out fires and maybe initiate a few fires and I think women are very good at that. They can multitask and do a lot of different things at one time and that's why I think a small business is very adaptable to a woman's personality and attributes."
According to Armstrong, another trend among family businesses is a movement toward co-leadership, although females tend to embrace this model more than their male counterparts.
In 1996, Heidi Vincent decided to team up with her mom, Sylvia, to create a children's publishing company called GWEV Publishing Inc.
"My background had been in public and investor relations in the high-tech sector and my mom had been a journalist and professional editor and writer for several years," says Heidi. "We decided to pool our skills and interests."
The mother-daughter team published its first book in 1997 and, since then, has produced 15.
Heidi is happy to have made the leap from the private sector to owning a family enterprise.
"It's very empowering. It's liberating to actually take all that you've gained from the business world and try to build something yourself."
Conflict between mother and daughter is inevitable but manageable because both make a concerted effort to communicate effectively.
"My mom and I have very different perspectives on some aspects of the business but we balance each other out. We are pretty in tune with each other in terms of our goals and where we want things to go in the business decisions that we make. We bring different things to the table in our different expertise and that's how we complement each other."
One aspect most family-run businesses cannot escape is keeping business and family separate. The same holds true for the Vincents.
"One of the aspects of running your own business is you think about it all the time. It's ingrained in our lives as a family and it tends to still be a major focal point of our conversations."
WOMEN IN FAMILY BUSINESSES:
Place greater proportionate emphasis on social responsibility, directing their philanthropic focus toward educational and community organizations;
Do more with less. Although female-owned family businesses are smaller in size – more than US$26 million in annual revenues compared to approximately US$30 million for male-owned counterparts – they generate sales with fewer median employees: 26 individuals compared to 50 at male-owned firms. This means that female-owned family businesses are 1.7 times more productive than male-owned family firms;
Are more than six times as likely to have a woman chief executive officer (roughly half are led by females). While woman-owned family businesses are typically 10 years younger than those owned by men, the average age of their owners is nearly identical. Nonetheless, female owners assumed leadership at an age five years older than their male counterparts;
Focus more carefully on CEO succession planning and are more likely to have chosen a follow-on chief executive;
Experience greater family loyalty, agreement with goals and pride in the business. They have a 40-per-cent lower rate of family member attrition;
Tend to be more fiscally conservative. More female-owned family businesses carry less or no debt, other than trade payables, than male-owned firms. This careful eye on debt may also reflect increased difficulty, versus men, in gaining access to capital. Either way, the relatively low debt load gives female business owners the ability to weather adversity but may limit their opportunity to fuel potentially higher growth through increased financing.
Source: The MassMutual Financial Group and the George and Robin Raymond Family Business Institute sponsored the 2002 American Family Business Survey.
