Family-owned Businesses | CEE perspectives - 4
Part 4 - Welcome to the Family
Hiring new leaders to take up the reins is one of the most critical chapters for a family-owned business, writes Željko Šundov, Partner, Amrop Croatia. It is also highly sensitive. As an incoming executive you’ll need to address a host of key questions. How does the owner truly envision your role? What is the scope of your mandate? Just two of the many things you’ll want to understand - ideally before stepping through the door.
In this chapter, Amrop provides guidance for executives in their first few months in an FOB: the attitudes, behaviors and actions needed in this special context.
Family-owned Businesses: a Human Story – an investigation from the desk of the global Amrop Partnership
“Any new leader should perform head-to-tail diligence on a new employer: from its governance to its assets,” Željko Šundov continues. “In the case of an FOB, the questions run deeper still. What are its deeply-held values, its true strengths? Who are the talented people, the safe hands?”
Open conversations with the owners are essential before deciding to move. “What do they want to change? How much will they accept? What must be preserved at all costs? Particularly a CEO may have an urge to galvanize and transform. But in an FOB, this can be perceived as reckless. After all, the firm has developed over time, discerning the optimal way of working and securing success.
“The new leader must seek evolution over revolution, gradually introducing any necessary shifts. Maintaining the core strengths and values. Communicating with purpose and clarity. An FOB’s owners have built a reputation over years and created strong bonds with internal stakeholders. As their ‘successor’, the buy-in of your team and wider employees is vital.”
“Many CEE family-owned businesses are still led or heavily influenced by their founders, built through resilience, intuition, and long-term vision,” says Cristina Postolache, Partner, Amrop Romania. “For incoming executives, the key is strategic sensitivity—knowing when to lead and when to adapt. Onboarding often happens more informally, through conversations and trust-building moments. In this context, versatility is essential: blending structured thinking with personal warmth, driving change while preserving identity. Success belongs to those who navigate legacy with respect and prepare the ground for evolution — leaders who understand their role is not to overwrite the past, but to co-author the next chapter alongside the family.”
Marko Mlakar, Chair of Amrop Adria, also has a clear message for onboarders who are eager to dismantle the furniture: “Family businesses don’t run on organization charts, but on legacy, loyalties, and often invisible lines of power. ‘Welcome to the Family’ shatters any illusion that standard onboarding will suffice. Charge in like a corporate cowboy, and you won’t last past the next board meeting. This guide gets it right: success isn’t about control — it’s about credibility. If you can’t read the room, earn trust, and respect the unwritten rules, you’re not leading — you’re visiting. The smartest executives don’t just navigate complexity — they decode it, quietly building influence where others misstep.”
Matej Mrak, Partner, Amrop Slovenia, confirms the need for diplomacy for executives coming from corporates: “More than experience, it requires emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity. Your structured thinking, strategic planning, and political navigation skills are assets, but they must be applied with humility and common sense.
“Unlike corporations, family businesses often operate with a single decision-maker and a deeply personal vision. Remember, their success wasn’t accidental — it was built on grit, instinct, and resilience. Your role is not to reinvent, but to enhance. Learn their culture, understand their needs, and execute with clarity and respect.”
CEE Participants
Joining a family-owned business – 4 critical stages for incoming executives
1 - Preparing entry
A global Amrop study1 asked senior executives about their due diligence on hiring organizations. Most consulted multiple channels, both within an organization’s control, (such as websites), and outside it, (such as employee opinions). Only a third sought information direct from the organization. Given the discretion of the family-owned business, this information may be elusive. And it is not enough.
Top tips
Ask your executive search consultant for insights on the FOBs top management: its configuration, the role/s of family members, decision-making processes and your (real) mandate and involvement - beyond the job description. Seek maximum clarity on the integration plan: the milestones, stakeholders, governance and chief custodian.
To understand the FOB’s real motivation and commitment, ask what prompted an external hire. Consider transition coaching to enhance your self-awareness, propose interventions and new interpretations of challenges2. Prepare to navigate an unfamiliar ecosystem, more as a ‘dispassionate naturalist’ than ‘slashing and burning’. Learn which areas can be cultivated, re-positioned, re-shaped or integrated in a way that supports the environment.
2 - Building relationships
An exploration of boardroom functionality points out that a daughter or son may receive senior role in a family business at an age when they would (at best) hold a middle management position elsewhere.3 Executives need to be alert to both the advantages and disadvantages of this.
Pedro Ferrer, Deputy Chairman and co-CEO of Freixenet, the global leader in sparkling wines, is a positive example – he literally grew up with the product. “As a small boy I played by the cavas, which are a part of my life, and I always had the idea that that was where my future lay.”4 After studies in economics, ecology and viticulture Ferrer started work at the Freixenet Group from the ground up. After further study in Spain and California he moved to a senior role in its USA office and was appointed CEO in 1998.
Top tips
As a newcomer, blend functional knowhow with emotional maturity, collaboration over competition. Build bridges, play a positive and supportive role. Do not only dig for insights, but do so in the right way: via constructive questioning, not relentless interrogation. Asking, active listening and dialogue nourish visibly important relationships and reveal the more subtle networks. If you then understand which topics you can manage, the owner will be more likely give you autonomy.
3 - Setting the strategic road map
An FOB expects more from an incoming executive than big ears and a winning smile. Having identified the zones of continuity and change, it is now time to set the strategic road map. Together with humility, diplomacy, collaboration and patience, this is where leadership indicators for the ‘change’ side of the spectrum truly enter the frame. The 4 leadership qualities of transformation, entrepreneurialism, agility and focus are all essential now.
Top tips
Leadership versatility means you can resolve the tricky paradox of continuity and change. And this is vital because despite the long-term culture of an FOB, you’ll be expected to deliver just as in any other organization. On one hand, exercise the 4 leadership styles of patience, collaboration, diplomacy and humility (continuity). On the other, transformation, entrepreneurialism, agility and focus (change). If you are leveraging your experience from a listed multinational, avoid ‘when-we’ language. It is time to diplomatically adjust your know-how to the new.
4 - Selling the strategy
You have asked the right people the right questions in the right way. Identified the quick wins and the long-term road map. Distinguished the ‘nice-to-haves’ from the ‘must-haves’. Determined which areas of the business should be preserved, and which are ripe for a rethink. You have framed the business case and identified the KPIs. Armed with your presentation, you enter the boardroom. What now?
Top tips
- First, reassure the family about what will not change.
- Use positive language (underpinned by a constructive attitude).
- Put relationships first, data second.
- And still - be armed with the numbers to defend your case.
References and further reading
1The Amrop Talent Observatory, (2021). Amrop
2 Cuneo, F., Guinea, F., (2016). Make or Break? Why transition coaching is critical for incoming executives. Amrop.
3 Stolker, J., (2023). ‘Het Spel in de Boardroom, een introductie in behavioral governance.’ Boom.
4 Leading in positive, Pedro Ferrer. CEDE and Deloitte.
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