Unite the Family
Grow the Company
Forge a New Legacy ™
Harmonious loving families united around profitable, growing, and stable businesses
See Their StoryWe all inherit a family legacy; it’s up to us to create new a one with the next generation.
Family businesses can be beautiful and rewarding, but relationships between family members, whether owners, board members, or employees, can be complicated. When money and love intertwine, and expectations, emotions, and needs are not mutually understood, relationships and businesses suffer.
Whether managing growth, strengthening effective governance, planning for a transition, or just trying to get along better, a unified, harmonious, and loving family that can speak about and resolve anything is the foundation for every family and business.
Our Compassionate Conflict Transformation™ approach moves families out of struggle and into harmony by simultaneously developing compassionate communication skills that build trust and empower sound business decision-making for everyone.
This way, love deepens, the business gets stronger, and a new legacy is born...
How to Prevent and Manage Family Business Conflict: Decision Making and the Family Business Constitution
Conflict among family members at home, at work, or in the board room can wreak havoc on individuals, family relationships,…Read more
Guidance with business acumen, finesse, deep empathy — always focusing on love.
What Clients Say
Clients report surprise and delight with their newly found business growth and stability, resolution of discord, smooth transitions, closer relationships and intimacy at work and at home; more happiness; peace; love profits, and deeper contentment with life generally.
Vice President, Board Member and Shareholder
“Matthew, you saved our company. You have a gift for navigating conflict, and we are lucky to have been able to work with him…Relationships immediately started to improve for my cousins and me. We’re an example of what healing looks like. We did a lot of work, from spirituality to how we operate the business. I stopped acting out of fear and protecting my branch and instead learned that if I take care of them they will take care of me…
…I realized that I’m most comfortable when I operate from a place of compassion and love. Without that shift, I’m not sure what would have happened.
We have almost doubled the size of the business, and we continue to grow as an executive team and a board. There is no fear of past legacy, only excitement for what is next…we showed our family and employees that we will lead our company into the future. We are happy and thriving and contributing…it’s going great.”
CEO, Chairman of the Board and Shareholder
The second generation had some animosities that could not be resolved, and the choice was to hand the business over to the third generation to resolve the dispute. We needed somebody who would not judge us, someone we could trust to create intimacy, to learn to trust each other, and to give us space without judgment or penalty for us all to express ourselves and move to the next step. I was fairly impatient and arrogant. You convinced me that there’s another way, a way with compassion…
…You brought me closer to the person I’ve always wanted to be — present, attentive, and, frankly, empathetic. There’s something powerful about having intimacy with another person so they can share whatever they need. Instead of filtering out what I thought was important, I’m paying attention and ensuring I’m not missing anything. My ability to connect with people has improved dramatically. It doesn’t just focus on my business partners, leadership, and employees but also my wife, kids, and parents. It was a huge paradigm shift, a big transformation. Working with Matthew has improved all my life, not just my professional life. You are like the Confucius master. You challenged me; I first resisted, then I understood, and I did it. I’ve never been happier.”
“Over the past few years I’ve been leading a charge to change the dynamics in my family after a number of hard years. My brother has been superficial and I was being directive, resistant, and shut down. I was emotional all week and so scared to be vulnerable. I finally looked my brother in the eye and told him that I was completely turned off from my emotions, but not anymore, and that I do I cared for him…
…I finally connected with him for the first time. He opened up and told me how he was trying to do his part. He hugged me three times and held me longer than he ever had. This was hugely profound. I’m no longer the little girl that can be bullied. In my 50s, I’ve finally become an adult. I have emotional and conversational tools now and am using them to create closeness for me and my family. My mood is different. I no longer feel the weight of a black cloud over my head all the time. My life feels more connected now, more profound, and more colorful. I feel peace, joy, a lightness of spirit, and hopefulness. I feel empowered.
3 Family Business Cases and Results
Situation: A $300M ann. revenue hypermarket chain in Latin America had several significant strategic, operational, and growth challenges: 1) The company didn’t have a CEO, there was no plan for finding one and no family member or executive wanted the role. 2) The family didn’t have a vision for the company that they agreed to, 3) The eldest patriarch was unwilling to step down and was thus hijacking retirement for the founding generation, and 4) the 2nd Generation was tied-up in the day-to-day management of the businesses and thus unable to oversee corporate operations and execute growth plans, and 5) having spent their entire careers in that business, the family lacked specific functional expertise required to take the already large and complicated company to the next level.
Action: Over 10 months, we led a series of shareholder meetings and executive team meetings, and performed individual executive coaching, all to establish trust, facilitate succession, align on a bold vision and company growth goals, set strategy and organizational redesign, and transform individual behavior and group dynamics.
Results: Generational succession was realized, a CEO was anointed and confirmed smoothly, vision for the family was created, separately a vision for the family business and the main business was created and committed to. Roles of the managing family members were modified and an executive leadership team with a new CEO was created. A culture of openness and new mindset for adding non-family executives and other professionals then supported scalable growth for years to come. New vision for growth realized $600M in revenue per year after 5 years.
Situation: A successful 5th Generation medical equipment distributor selling about $70M in equipment and services just executed a difficult ownership and management transition to the next generation. The older generation was embroiled in a three-year legal battle that handicapped the company and caused fractures in the family. The legal portion of the dispute was resolved by retiring the older generation and selling the company to the younger. Some members of the family still were not speaking to each other. Emotional stress on this younger generation was extreme. Managing the company as a group of untrusting cousins and without a CEO resulted in difficult and slow decision making and risk to the family fortune that was tied up in the company. Employees were used to following a strong leader and were uncertain about the future of the company. Their main concern was to stabilize the business under new management and ensure effective and harmonious decision making. Trust was missing and fear was present. Familial and business relations were strained.
Action: Prepared a detailed assessment and report outlining strategic challenges and opportunities for the business and the family. Led ownership and management meetings to guide the set-up of a family business council and it’s writing of a family business constitution as a way to build trust, recreate relationships and set vision and governance policies. Brought in financial management advisory to strengthen the finance department. Coached family member executives/board members and developed a new CEO. Set the foundation by policy and practice to separate and strengthen the executive team and board of directors. Facilitated the deep work of putting the older generations’ conflict in the past and minimizing it’s impact on the younger generation.
Results: The business was stabilized and is experiencing growth and increased profitability. Familial relations greatly improved and in some places are great. New business strategy was developed and new executives were hired into an executive team that has leadership and where their contribution is valued and valuable. The Family Business Constitution provides guidance for effective decision making that is based on shared values and commitments for a new legacy to be created and its creation healed wounds from the past generation’s conflict. Separate board and executive team allows greater contribution from non-family executives and having governance, strategic and management discussions in their proper place. The younger generation meets as a broader group of cousins socially and familial relations have been largely, all though not completely restored. Over the period of the engagement the company grew from $70M to $165M in sales.
Situation: Three siblings owned and managed a real estate development company with $3M in rental revenue per year. Their mother and father were mostly silent shareholders. One business service was outsourced to a family member, which caused strife and disagreement about how to address it. Their partnership agreement was written on a napkin, and the operational roles of the family members needed to be clarified. Discussions meant red-faced yelling. One sibling threatened to quit. The growth and stability of the company and family relations were both at risk. Parents were fed up with the fighting and demanded the siblings “learn to get along.” They worked with consultants before on this to no avail.
Action: We analyzed the situation, expectations, strategy, and organization and mapped elements of family culture. In group meetings, parents’ need for harmony was explored in the context of past and future family legacy and the business. We examined the root causes of conflict, clarified vision, strategy, and values, and fostered new agreements. Plans were agreed to for the compassionate exit of the family member supplier. Roles and partner agreements were formalized, and salaries were negotiated.
Results: The siblings learned to listen to each other, speak openly and honestly, and make decisions in service of the company. All brothers remained in the business. Experienced professionals were hired as leaders and coached to support the growth as the business went through 3 significant business model changes. The company went from making $3M a year from industrial rental income to developing and selling luxury properties worth more than $25M and increasing rental income significantly. With the newfound harmony, the third generation is moving back home and clamoring to get into the business.
Meet Your Guide
I’m Matthew Levy, the Founder and Chief Catalyst of Results Management Group. For 25+ years, I’ve brought strategic insight and deep empathy to unite families, develop leaders, align boards and management teams, stabilize families and companies, facilitate successful transitions, and catalyze growth – even in the most challenging situations. By aligning owners, boards, management teams, and families with compelling visions and new strategies, we learn new ways of loving, working, and making decisions for common benefit. Through rediscovering the truth of who we are in compassionate power. As family, owners and management, we let go of what is no longer needed, recognize and transform old patterns and beliefs, and adopt new strategies that inspire more rewarding relationships, collaboration, success, joy, and a new legacy for future generations of family.
I hold an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. I also studied conflict resolution at American University, receiving a BA in International Studies, and at the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, Entrepreneurship at Wharton, and Family Business at ITESM. I’ve been a guest lecturer at Florida International University, and I write and speak on leadership, creating highly effective aligned teams, culture, and family business.
Please tell me why you are here and what you want most, see below, and let’s set up a video call to learn more about each other.