Family businesses—from mom-and-pop shops to corporate behemoths like Walmart, Ford, Berkshire Hathaway, and News Corp.—share as many weaknesses as strengths. On one hand, they create resilient, values-driven organizations. But they’re often faulted for nepotism and poor succession planning, generating real-life, stranger-than-HBO soap operas.
Behind closed doors, substance abuse disorders are among the most common sources of conflict for families running companies, according to consultant James Olan Hutcheson, founder of ReGeneration Partners, in Dallas, which specializes in family-owned enterprises and has made helping those in which a member suffers from addiction a subspecialty. No broad research exists to confirm this, but Hutcheson believes there should be: When he analyzed the 270-plus clients he has worked with over 30 years, he found addiction lurked within more than 55% of cases. His customers’ reasons for contacting him varied, but once the work began, the consultants would often discover that someone in a leadership position was struggling with addiction. “It was eye-popping to see just how frequent this issue is,” Hutcheson says.
