Generational transition: separating ownership from management.
Corporate governance, family protocol and organizational design in companies changing generations.
The Colombian family business faces a critical moment when the second generation takes over. The conflict is rarely about capability: it is about unwritten rules.
Separating ownership from management means defining three distinct spaces with their own rules: the shareholders' meeting, the board of directors and the management team. Confusing them is the usual cause of decisions taken at the family lunch table.
The family protocol answers uncomfortable questions before they become urgent: who can work in the company and under what conditions, how family members' pay is set, how profits are distributed and what happens if someone wants to sell their stake.
In parallel, organizational design must eliminate positions created by surname rather than need. It is the hardest part, and the one that most determines whether the company survives the transition.
The practical recommendation: start the process while the outgoing generation is still active. Protocols written in the middle of a crisis rarely hold.