The Millers position community as “uniting and tending to the tribe” (2005a, p. 38). For the community, association with family owners is far more intimate than it would be in a widely held firm. Millerian families appreciate that “to cherish the firm meant to treasure those who staff and sustain it” (2005b, p. 521). As members join a community in which adhering to deeply held values rooted in the founders’ beliefs and institutionalized by subsequent generations is the principal driver—rather than bureaucratic rules or pecuniary incentives—selection processes are more comprehensive. Having a community of employees whose hearts and minds are engaged with the organization results in cohesive corporate cultures perpetuated through ongoing, intimate, trust-based relationships among community members and family owners. As a result, “stratospheric” levels of loyalty and motivation are characteristic of the cohesive internal community (2005b, p. 522). The Millers observe that building a “cohesive, gung-ho community of employees” (2005a, p. 38) contributes to a collectivist social philosophy in the outstanding FCBs in their study (e.g. the Hall family of the Hallmark Card Company). The elements of this tribal community include “strong values, not just stated, but pervasively enacted; incessant socialization in those values; a welfare state to enlist employees in the good fight; and an informal way of operating that engages interaction and collaboration” (2005a, p. 39).
Ultimately, the community of employees is charged with nurturing the “precious enterprise and strive to achieve its hallowed mission” (2005a, p. 42), by working with and on behalf of the family. They succeed together by displaying a “moral commitment to enter into an enduring relationship of broad reciprocity—like friendship or even kinship…a felt bond between employee and employer” (2005a, p. 42).
In addition to their close relationships with internal stakeholders, these FCBs are notorious for their embeddedness in their business networks. As such, they are more attuned to, cognizant of, and understanding of the need to navigate a slew of nuanced multidimensional challenges with respect to their business partners, challenges that their non-FCB contemporaries do not face. Connectivity to the broader society is considered particularly important due to an expectation and obligation to be especially generous to those that “treated them so well” (Miller and Le Breton-Miller 2005a, p. 44).
In contrast to community, the Millerian concept of connection is an externally oriented construct: “being good neighbors and partners” (2005a, p. 42). Just as concentrating on building enduring relationships with a community of employees is important, these FCBs seek similar mutually beneficial relationships with business partners, customers, and society. Being a “good neighbor and indispensable partner” (2005a, p. 42) is achieved by using “an ancient toolkit: being honest, farsighted, and generous” (2005a, p. 42). By being “meticulously honest” and delivering more than promised, “contacts grow into contracts, and contracts into age-old partnerships” (2005a, p. 43) (e.g. the Bechtel family). The Millers observe that successful FCBs favor “long-term, win-win relationships over transactions,” and because they are driven by the will for the business to last, they are willing to “put time and money into potentially sustaining associations that take a long time to pay off” (2005a, p. 43). They are, moreover, characterized as benevolent partners who build a “devoted cadre of supply chain soul mates” (2005a, p. 44). By being more responsive and committed, they form close bonds with customers and maintain them over time, often adopting a philosophy that “there is no such thing as an ex-customer” (2005a, p. 44).
In sum, the focus on prioritizing commitment both to building a community of employees passionate about adherence to the family's values-driven culture and to developing long-term, trust-based connections with loyal partners results in heightened levels of intimacy, which enables family business managers to share the feelings of and better understand their employees and business partners. In this way, families often “absorb misery” (Miller and Le Breton-Miller, 2005a, p. 40) when stakeholders face challenging situations. Consider the following events recalled by Walter Haas Jr., then-Chairman of the board of Levi Straus, in 1973 when faced with a stock-price plummet from $59.75 to $16.62:
“It was one of the worst six months of my life, very bad, not so much for the monetary loss, but for the pride. It was a reflection on our management. A big part of it was that so many little people were let down. We were terribly distressed about the stock because we had made a point of setting aside shares for our own employees when we went public. They were unsophisticated investors, and this debacle, coupled with the huge drop in the market in general.” Haas's voice faltered, the disappointment still keen, five years later.
(Cray 1978, p. 218).
The Millers define command as leaders, both those within the family and throughout the top management team, “acting independently and adapting freely” (2005a, p. 45). Their outstanding families view the freedom to act decisively and courageously as a vital source of their “competitive originality and business renewal” (2005a, p. 45). A common theme among these leaders is the ability to embrace unorthodoxy and break the rules. This ability is fortified when managers believe in one another and act for the company without the burden of worrying about termination. Yet, it is important to note that due to the managers’ responsibility for the long-run viability of the business and the reputation of the family, “boldness takes form not in gambles, but in programs of courageous, targeted adaption” (2005a, p. 48). In other words, although leaders exercising command must have “the clout, expertise, and motivation to act courageously,” those decisions must also be “in the interest of the company” (2005b, p. 525).
The knowledge of the perspectives of employees and business partners gained through intimate associations with these stakeholders provides family business leaders a platform from which they can assess how to behave with unusual boldness without disenfranchising those with whom they have created a unity of purpose. Consider the following situation and exchange involving Corning Glass Ware's non-family CEO Tom MacAvoy and family owner and Chairman Amory Houghton in 1979:
When faced with a major issue with a product line, MacAvoy remembers listening to legal advice to gather more facts and proceed deliberately before he and Houghton decided to act on the basis of simple criteria. “It gradually became apparent that our reputation, our integrity, was being questioned by some of our key people”, said MacAvoy, who found that intolerable. “If you have a dozen people who disbelieve that the company means what it says about quality and dealing with customers, its [sic] poison. So I remember I went next door and knocked on Amo's door, which happened to be closed. I opened the door, and he was there with his secretary. I said, “I've just decided we are going to recall the Corning Ware Electromatic Coffee pots.” He was dictating a letter or something like that. He said, “How much is it going to cost?” I said, “I don't know, but it's probably going to be 10 million dollars or something like that”. So, he nodded his head, and I went back and did it. It cost $14 million, but it was the right thing to do.
(Dyer and Gross 2001, p. 348).
As this example shows, the ability to sense employees’ and customers’ failing confidence in the business was the impetus for action. In the absence of a continuity mindset, MacAvoy might not have been mindful of the impact the company's product line was having on its community and connections. Yet, his awareness of their feelings toward Corning and, more importantly, the importance to Corning of maintaining intimate relationships with them, provided the rationale he needed to spearhead what ultimately became a $14-million recall, a considerable expense (especially in 1979 dollars).
In sum, families that exercise command empower their leaders to make bold decisions that, while not always in the short-term economic interest of the FCB, support its social relationships with employees and business partners.
In the Millers’ successful FCBs, the commitment to continuity through a clear intention to keep the business within the family is evident. These companies express a desire for long-term survival of the business, which results from “the relentless development of the capabilities needed to realize it” (2005a, p. 35). Continuity for these