After a fall, a son wants in the business - Family Business; Case Study

Nation's Business, Oct, 1994 by Robert Caldwell, Paul Frishkoff

Jim Coates, 32, a junior partner in a large law firm, has just been told he is being let go--not for lack of performance, but for lack of developing new business.

After giving the firm top priority for seven years, Jim can't believe it. "When I made junior partner," he says, "my wife, Ann, and I finally felt all of the vacations we missed and all of the time we lost together were beginning to pay off."

Jim rejects the idea of starting over and finding a comparable position in another law firm. Instead, he wants to exercise the option of joining Coates Real Estate Co., the family business.

Jim recalls his graduation day from law school when his parents urged him to change his mind and join them, but he wanted to make his own way and excitedly accepted the law firm's offer, a decision he now regrets.

Steve, who is a year younger, joined his parents' company straight out of college. After marrying into a wealthy family, he borrowed money from his in-laws to infuse needed capital into the business. With help from Steve, residential sales have doubled.

Jim knows his parents will welcome him into the business, but he wants Steve to welcome him, too. Ann, however, says, "Jim and Steve have always been competitive in whatever they do." She fears that if Jim joins the company, it will result in a rift between the two brothers. But Ann herself, Jim observes, is resentful of both Steve and his wife, Jennifer, sometimes referring to them as the "fair-haired boy and the princess." He worries that joining the company may escalate ill feelings between Ann and Jennifer.

How can Jim enter the business in a way that will be constructive for everyone involved?