Avoid perils of putting profit ahead of family

It is prudent to use wealth to build strong relationships in the nuclear and extended families. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH 

By PETER MUTUA

In Summary

• Leaders who allow themselves to be completely entangled with what they own lack true purpose, compromise relationships and eventually slip into obscurity.

In August 2008, Steven Munuve* declared to his wife Susan* that he was no longer interested in staying together with her; he wanted her to move out of their matrimonial home and to leave him alone.

He said he felt constrained by her aversion to risk, which he perceived to be lack of support for his business enterprises. It did not matter to him that Susan spent most of her time making the home comfortable and looking after their children; to him these were tasks that could easily be delegated to hired servants.

It later emerged that Steven was engaged in an affair with a woman from his business network.

She was enterprising and aggressive in her pursuit of business opportunities, and Steven thought she would be greater asset to him than Susan was. Indeed, she has not disappointed so far – they have built a substantial business empire as property developers.

However, two families have been destroyed to create this family business; Steven broke his own marriage while his mistress left a devastated husband and children in her wake. It is unrealistic to expect that large estates can compensate for these relationship losses.

Steven is not the first Leader of Family Business to put profit before family. In 2012, a prosperous well-known entrepreneur engaged in property development was approached by a sibling who was in urgent need of money.

After listening to the sob story for five minutes, he admonished his sibling for investing time and energy into ventures that had no hope of survival much less of generating profits.

He then dismissed his sibling without a second thought. The sibling now languishes bitterly in seemingly unending financial distress.

Early in 2014, a high-ranking government officer was sued by some of his family members on account of a multi-million shilling estate left by their father.

His mother and siblings claimed that he had, without their knowledge or consent, allocated himself a substantial share of the holding company in which the property was held. It took the intervention of senior leaders from the region to resolve this family conflict.

All these Leaders of Family Business had more than enough to cater for their needs and for the needs of those closest to them.

Sadly, because they evaluated all relationships in monetary terms, they were unwilling to use wealth for the purpose for which it is given to families – building of strong relationships in the nuclear and extended families.

Leaders of Family Business recognise that being rich is much better than being poor.

However, astute leaders recognise that if one is not careful, obsession with wealth accumulation can lead to spiritual imprisonment – the condition in which one’s identity, sense of worth and security are completely tied to their assets.

Leaders who allow themselves to be completely entangled with what they own lack true purpose, compromise relationships and eventually slip into obscurity.