Surviving the bad and good times in family enterprise

The owners servants came and asked him, Master, you sowed good seed in your field didn’t you? Then where did these weeds come from? He told them, “An enemy did this!” The servants asked him, “Do you want us to pull them out?” He said, “No, if you pull out the weeds you might pull out the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest and at harvest time I will tell the reapers “Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles for burning but bring the wheat into my barn”
Matthew 13:27-30

Daisy Katathi* worked hard to establish herself and her family business.

Starting off as a housemaid, she and her casual labourer husband Musyoka* painstakingly saved every month. Finally, after more than four years, they bought a plot of land on which they built their first home.

Musyoka thereafter graduated from casual labour to driving a matatu while Katathi opened a milk parlour adjacent to their house. The business venture took off, allowing Musyoka to leave his job as a driver to join his wife in the shop.

Diversifying into trading cereals, Katathi and Musyoka eventually joined the big leagues and are now considered the leading business owners in their town.

In August last year, Katathi went for a routine medical examination; it was found that a growth in her ovaries was cancerous. She was immediately put on chemotherapy. Sadly, the treatment did not work and she has now been put on a more aggressive regimen. Relatives, family and friends prayed for the best.

Samson Oketch* and his wife Siprosa* were gifted a small transport business by her parents when they got married.

Through prudent cost management and investment, they grew the business venture to the point where they are now prominent transporters in Kakamega. In addition to trucks, they also own a wholesale shop, several commercial and residential buildings. Their monthly rental income is estimated to be in the tens of millions.

Sadly, the Oketch children have never taken off in spite of excellent upbringing, consistent parental supervision all combined with a high cost education.

The first-born, Darren* is a well-known local philanderer cum drunkard. Their second child, Wilfrida*, is, to put it gently, a lady of questionable virtue who seems addicted to unknown drugs. Only the third born, Alfred* seems to show mild potential; Samson and Siprosa wait for him to complete his university studies with bated breath.

Both these couples have reaped incredible financial rewards from careful investment and have taken every measure to ensure that they and their loved ones are financially secure.

Both have done all they can to live balanced, healthy lives and to bring up their children to the best of their ability. Yet both couples are faced with a traumatic present and an uncertain future.

Some around them counsel them to “repent of their sins” naming greed, bitterness and immorality as some of the vices that could possibly have spawned these conditions. While the couples’ fervently seek divine intervention, none are aware of any conscious wrongdoing.

Leaders of family business should recognise that on this side of heaven there is no such thing as a perfect harvest — one in which only good seeds grow to maturity and where no unpleasantness interferes with the return from diligent investment.

No matter how well leaders balance seed and harvest from investment, there always are painful factors to deal with physically, emotionally or spiritually. These must be taken along with good outcomes as a reality of being mortal.

No matter how wisely and strategically family business invests it is not humanly possible to refine harvests from investment to the extent where one continuously enjoys benefits without discomfort, pain or loss. Runs of perpetual good fortune do not exist.

Even those leaders of family business who meticulously invest for themselves and future generations are occasionally disappointed by the outcomes of their ventures or offspring. They must learn to take these unpleasant developments stoically even as they celebrate positive results.

Not all unpleasant circumstances are necessarily signs, as some believe, that the family business amassed wealth through unscrupulous means.

They may just be divine interventions that demonstrate that all human beings are equal and vulnerable to the same sets of laws regarding the harvest.

Mr Mutua is a Humphrey Fellow and a leadership development consultant focused on family businesses. His email address is [email protected].

*Names used in the article are not real.