The Pandemic Pause: A Reset for Family Businesses

What makes a family business different from a regular business? Pramodita Sharma, the Daniel Clarke Sanders Chair in Family Business, says the pandemic is giving us all an insider’s look by forcing a new interface between business and our personal lives. The virus has caused many of us to bring our work into the home, into the lives of our family. “In family businesses, we’re mixing those two systems,” says Sharma. “The talk about what’s happening in the business doesn’t go away, doesn’t matter if it is Saturday or Sunday or morning or night.” She says the pressures that we’re feeling amid juggling telework, distance learning, and extra time spent with loved ones exemplify her area of study. Sharma says the months-long slowing of commerce during the pandemic has ushered in a “reset period” for family businesses that is marked with loss—of revenue, employees, entire companies—but also with creativity and innovation. She says business leaders who weather this period best will engage their employees in opportunities they have always wanted to explore but haven’t. One bright side to this reset, she says, is that companies that survive it have a chance to become even bigger and more robust on the other side, if they have an eye toward innovation. Another positive outcome of the pause in industry, for Sharma, is that communities across the globe have begun to see the toll that business as usual has taken on the environment. “In India, from hundreds of kilometers away, they can actually see the Himalayas again. This is the first time, in some cases, that two generations are seeing the mountains. I didn’t see them. My children didn’t see them. But because of this, we can see them one more time.” Sharma hopes that renewed emphasis on environmental impact and sustainability in business, a major focus of her current research, will be another silver lining to this global crisis. She adds that Grossman School of Business students are already poised to lead their generation in this thinking. “Our MBA program has been ranked top in the country for a few years because we are focused on sustainable innovation.” Working from home, Sharma has found it necessary to be innovative in her teaching and research as well. She was recently able to connect virtually in a global conversation with faculty and researchers in countries like Italy and Spain, who were at the time near the peak of the pandemic, to learn how family businesses were coping. “We’re hearing of those heroes in business families emerging in this process, and quickly trying to write little cases and learn from each other. So some good things are coming out of it.”