Clogs to clogs in three generations. We've seen it elsewhere.
Man builds successful business and has children.
Not all children want to be part of it.
Old man retires and leaves one or two children running business.
Second generation have more children, all benefitting from the company.
Some of grandchildren enter company, but not all.
Then tensions emerge about who gets what, and the solution is to sell and divvi up the cash.
They all get a small share but the asset and the income is lost.
This is exactly what happened to a family run hotel we stayed at for years in Devon……..
I think Dave comes close to explaining what has happened. I recall a conversation with Charles in which he railed against the lack of knowledge of car manufacturing among the (family) board members. Basically he was saying what Dave has intimated; all family owned businesses eventually succumb to the same dynamic i.e. a dilution of expertise, passion and loyalty through marriage and inheritance. One could speculate that the vote against CM as MD was the beginning of the end of family ownership. Of course there will be other factors.
The magnificent farm on which my father grew up was sold for similar reasons, and the farm on which I grew up was sold for similar reasons.
It's sad. It's another bottle of Wolf Blass sad. It's as sad as a sad person who only has a five Euro bottle of Wolf Blass in the cupboard. That's quite sad.
