The Family Business: Gopher IT

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Table of Contents

Roles of the Family Members in the Governance of Gopher IT
Gopher IT activities
Strengths and Weaknesses of Gopher IT
Stages of Growth in Gopher IT
Conflicts in Gopher IT
Conclusion
Reference List

Gopher IT is a business owned by a family with different members of the family engaging in running of the business. It is described as a family business because it has the majority of voting power controlled by the family. It comprises one of the worlds dominant types of businesses (Davis 2001).

Roles of the Family Members in the Governance of Gopher IT

The owners hold more than one role in the business. They have different positions as managers and directors. There are also non-family managers who are treated equally as family managers because the company has set up good employment policies for everyone. This has made all employees to be motivated. The management of Gopher IT is strictly under family members.

There is also a board of directors. Membership of board of directors is mostly reserved for the family members although it is given also to non-family members who are trusted. This ensures that most business decisions are made by the family members (Le Van, 1999).

Gopher IT is owned by husband and wife. Laura Welch, who is the wife, is the general manager who oversees the running of the company (Stempler 1998). She handles all purchases, opening and closing of the office every day. Jack Welch, the husband, is the Sales and Marketing Manager. He creates promotional activities, monitors sales and distributes all marketing materials

Chris Welch, their son, is the Financial Manager. He is responsible for finance, payroll, accounting taxes, billing and matters related to budgets. The non-family managers are operation manager and human resource manager. The operation manager is in charge of daily operations. The human resource manager supervises employees and his roles include hiring and firing of new applicants.

There is good governance in Gopher IT so as to instill discipline, prevent conflicts, and the business may continue to grow. To achieve this, the company communicates its vision, rules and regulations and facilitates decision making and sharing of ideas among all members.

The structure of Gopher IT governance has been well documented in a strategic plan. It comprises policies and values of the business. It defines the roles of the key players of the family business (Sahlman 1997) Employees are their in-laws, cousins and non family members who finished school recently.

Gopher IT activities

The family business offers personal services to people and it is located in the downtown of Boston. They saw that peoples schedules were demanding hence the business motive was to increase the leisure time for people. The people living in the downtown have white collar jobs, higher income and would like to have leisure time.

It is time consuming and irritating to run errands after work, during work and before work. People queue, fight traffic, and others skip lunch and hence will benefit from this family business. It offers errand services for professionals. It is located in the second floor, room 101 of Times Tower.

They offer services on foot, riding by bicycle or use public transport. The services include: picking laundry, mail, tickets, shopping, automobile after repair and sometimes making deposits in banks. Charges are hourly (Stempler, 1998). The market is good because there are about 10,000 who pass the office every day when going to work. There is the storage of groceries and gifts.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Gopher IT

As a family business, it performs better than non-family businesses. They make higher profits and sales than their counterparts. This is due to some strength that the other businesses lack which include commitment. The owners of the business show a lot of dedication so that the business may grow and can be inherited by the subsequent generation.

They work hard, plough back profit that they have made to make it long term. Knowledge continuity is another strength factor. Business owners make sure that they pass accumulated experience, knowledge, and skills to their family members so that the company may not fail even in the long term (Davis 2001).

One of the weaknesses of Gopher IT as a family business includes favorism. Family members are employed regardless of whether they are qualified or not. Complexity is another weakness that Gopher IT experience. This is due to employment of different members of the family who run the business.

The family members also add family issues and emotions to the business unlike their counterparts. Lacking discipline is Gophers IT businesss weakness where some family members do not pay attention to strategic areas.

Stages of Growth in Gopher IT

The first stage was called the founders stage. The business was managed and owned by those who founded it. They included the husband and the wife. It was not complicated in governance, because its running was only in the hands of the founders.

There was also good commitment towards the business. The next stage was called the sibling partnership. Although the founders maintained management of the business, it transferred some to their children. The third stage is the cousin confederation. This is where more family members were included in the business like in-laws and cousins (Neuberger and Lank 1998).

Conflicts in Gopher IT

There may arise some conflicts brought about by the family members employed either now or in the future and one of them is succession. Conflicts may arise as to who will be the successor of the wife and husband. Another conflict is the acceptance of roles in the future and agreeing to continue the business.

There is no record that the managers have the right education to hold the managerial positions (Sahlman 1997), There is no record also that they have any experience pertaining to running of the business.

Conclusion

To improve the functioning of the family business, it is important for the owners to set up good employment policies so that family members do not add family issues and emotions. Based on the conflict of succession, it is better for the business to state clearly who will succeed the owners based on their education and experience in the running of the business.

They will need also to be familiarized with the roles that they will undertake i.e. the managerial positions. They will also need to have education on the roles they will undertake like Chris who is a financial manager. Finally, it is important that the family has its strategic plan stating its rules and vision.

Some family businesses have little life span and do not make it to the third generation because the third generation do not have the skills and experience to run the business with its large demands. They need to be educated on the roles they will take and familiarize with the business

Reference List

Davis, J, A 2001, The family business, Harvard business Review, vol. 20, no. 19, pp.6

Le Van, G 1999, The Survival Guide for Business Families, London, Routledge.

Neuberger, F, & Lank, A 1998, The Family Business: Its Governance for Sustainability, London, Routledge.

Sahlman, A 1997, How to Sustain a Family Business, Harvard Business Review,vol.75,no. 4,pp.98-108.

Stempler, G, L 1988, A Study of Succession in Family Owned Businesses, Ph.D. Dissertation , Washington, DC, George Washington University.

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