{"id":813,"date":"2018-04-30T09:30:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/?p=813"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:39:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:39:03","slug":"when-family-business-gets-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2018\/04\/30\/when-family-business-gets-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"When family business gets ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Desmond Griffin and his sister-in-law Penny Green decided to join forces on mobile payments company Glance Technologies Inc. , it was to help expand the business with an eye to taking it public. About three years later, the family members are in a heated dispute \u2013 playing out in press releases and online \u2013 over the direction of the Vancouver-based financial technology company , a small cap that went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in September, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Glance\u2019s technology is used in restaurants and by other merchants and the company says it\u2019s currently developing a rewards-based cryptocurrency to be integrated into its platform.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Green, the company\u2019s largest shareholder with a slightly higher stake than Mr. Griffin, was fired as president and chief operating officer in February. Ms. Green is still a director and has called a shareholder meeting in June to remove three of the company\u2019s five directors and replace them with her own picks.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a small company that\u2019s not a household name, but it offers lessons for other entrepreneurs. While there\u2019s an old adage that says never go into business with family (or friends), experts say the corporate pairing of relatives can be powerful, if properly handled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen an entrepreneurial family gets together to work on something, they care so much more than someone who doesn\u2019t have their name on the building or doesn\u2019t have a stake in the community. To me, that\u2019s a recipe for building a great business,\u201d says David Simpson, head of the Business Families Centre at Western University\u2019s Ivey School of Business. \u201cHowever, when it goes poorly, it goes poorly doubled down because you\u2019re losing your brother or sister or cousin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Family members in business together should also outline what happens if one person wants out, or there\u2019s a disagreement in direction, Mr. Simpson says.<\/p>\n<p>Most often, it\u2019s money and corporate strategy \u2013 including how various family members are compensated and disagreement over the direction of the company \u2013 that lead to family business feuds, says Jane-Mich\u00e8le Clark, an instructor who teaches the family enterprise course in the entrepreneurship program at York University\u2019s Schulich School of Business. Ms. Clark recommends business families hold strategy sessions that cover topics such as their family values, how they want the business to work for them and vision for the company.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview, Ms. Green said she would go into business with family again, but acknowledges that a public company may not be the ideal setting. \u201cIf you can work with the people that you love, I think that\u2019s fantastic,\u201d she says, but adds that in hindsight, having agreements on how to handle business disputes would have been a good idea.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Ms. Green feels the current feud won\u2019t damage her family relationships in the long run. \u201cThis is just a blip in our long-term relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: Bouw, Brenda, April 29, 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/small-business\/managing\/article-when-family-business-gets-ugly\/\">https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/business\/small-business\/managing\/article-when-family-business-gets-ugly\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Desmond Griffin and his sister-in-law Penny Green decided to join forces on mobile payments company Glance Technologies Inc. , it was to help expand the business with an eye to taking it public. About three years later, the family members are in a heated dispute \u2013 playing out in press releases and online \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When family business gets ugly - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.isb.edu\/centre-for-family-enterprise\/2018\/04\/30\/when-family-business-gets-ugly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When family business gets ugly - Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Desmond Griffin and his sister-in-law Penny Green decided to join forces on mobile payments company Glance Technologies Inc. , it was to help expand the business with an eye to taking it public. 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