Paula Martínez Sanchis in the Bilbao Stock Exchange building. /
Paula Martínez Sanchis Winner of the Alberto Alberdi Award
The 28-year-old young woman developed a thesis on the situation and challenges of this model of firms that come to represent 84% of the total in the Basque Country
Family businesses account for 84% of all firms registered in the Basque Country, compared to an approximate percentage of 60% for the rest of Europe. The doctoral thesis of Paula Martínez Sanchis, the 28-year-old who received the 1st Alberti Alberdi Award in Bilbao for this research carried out with the help of the University of Deusto and the Basque Family Business Association (AEFAME), investigates the challenges that await these companies.
– His thesis opens an award. Do economic studies need to receive more visibility?
– Definitely yes. I think this award recognizes the Basque economy, at the same time that it encourages the new generations. For me it has been very rewarding.
– What type of family business is most common in the Basque Country?
– There is everything. People tend to think of SMEs, which are the most numerous examples here, but if we look more globally, we don’t have to go far to see large groups like Inditex, Mercedes, Ikea, H&M, Lidl… All of them are firms that have a family behind them and that are very heterogeneous.
Making successors “start from scratch” or “go through different positions” are some of the strategies used
– And what challenges await these companies today?
– More than half are now facing a complex situation, because they are going to carry out the generational change and on many occasions they lack the necessary knowledge to face it. The investigation analyzes the factors that can help the process move forward, or that the company ends up being sold to a foreign investment fund, which is something that has also happened here. That moment of passing from the first to the second generation is the most delicate. It is necessary that those who arrive feel the same emotional attachment to the company as their predecessors, and the support of the ‘stakeholders’ is also required, the circle of relevant people in the firm who can grant them the necessary authority.
– Does the family model have advantages in the current context?
– In many ways, the fact of being a business family is beneficial to be able to deal with the current context because for practical purposes they have greater independence and freedom. In addition, bureaucracy is greatly reduced without the need to go through so many hierarchical steps. On the other hand, it also entails the problems that a family involves, from internal conflicts to jealousy between siblings, or that the next generation does not want to take over. They need to know how to deal with them with transparency and honesty, and not force situations. For example, perhaps it is better that a person who is not part of the family enters at a certain time, so that he can return to her later.
– Does the succession in the family business generate misgivings?
– Within the company itself, there can be that effect of not wanting to accept a person who has imposed himself, simply because he belongs to the family. That is why it is very important that from the beginning the successor is embedded in it. In those that I have dealt with for the thesis, the successors were taken from a very young age to get to know the company, to lunch and dinner. You can also make them start from scratch, to legitimize them as successors, to go through different positions or train them in certain prestigious institutions. If there are misgivings, succession can be a touchy subject.
“Family businesses have more independence and freedom. They reduce the hierarchical steps»
Overcome the crisis
– And are they better able to overcome major crises?
– In general terms, it has been seen that many of them have been able to overcome the crisis in a more favorable way due to the agility and flexibility available to them, but there may be exceptions.
– In the thesis he warns of the rooting of companies to institutions. In what sense?
– What is seen in the Basque Country is that the perception of family businesses about how politics acts to their benefit or detriment is very important. Some indicated a certain feeling of pain regarding public policies, not only fiscal ones, which were created in the past and were not even in operation, but which continued to affect them when deciding whether to continue their activity here or go to another community. autonomous. They also criticized the lack of sufficient available spaces to be able to expand their infrastructures.