In recent days, a letter from Daniel Servitje Montull, president and CEO of Grupo Bimbo, was circulating on social networks (LinkedIn to be specific), addressed to its more than 140,000 employees and in which he announced his handover as CEO of the Group, to become its Executive President; a new role but one in which he would be as committed as in his previous responsibilities. The business leader announced a new stage for this family business group that has been nourishing the world for almost 8 decades.
Grupo Bimbo is the second largest family business in Mexico; It was founded in 1945 as Panificación Bimbo. The baking company began producing loaf bread and today sells more than 100 brands in 34 countries on 4 continents through its network of 215 production plants.
The main reason why this note caught my attention is that the letter clearly draws the journey leadership of a business family. Business success has been more the consequence of doing things from a perspective of transcendence that reveals the creation of a solid legacy with all its dimensions: material, biological, cultural and social.
The material dimension is the most evident when success in business has been present; This includes not only economic wealth but also assets and other goods that accumulate over generations. We can identify the biological dimension with the family surnames and the genealogy associated with them. Regarding the cultural dimension of a legacy, it is built with family values, often transferred to companies, habits, rituals; That is, the idiosyncrasy of the family that identifies a certain way of doing things. Finally, the social dimension has to do with the reputation and social influence that the family exerts in different contexts.
And just as it has been for the Servitje family, guarding a multigenerational legacy implies recognizing who we are, what are those values that identify us, what makes us generate value for the different interest groups and, of course, preserving and, eventually, generating greater prosperity. Ultimately, they are commitments to the past to continue building futures. A future that invites innovation, the search for transcendence through the generation of positive impact with our actions. Exemplary families such as Coppel, Zambrano, Garza, González, Plasencia, Devlyn, Servitje, and many more in our country, have decided to work on the development of new generations, imprinting a tradition of innovation that makes them aware of the great responsibility of transforming futures and positively impact the environment.
In summary, legacy in business families involves much more than the transmission of wealth from one generation to another; It is necessary to preserve and cultivate a spirit of contribution in each generation, develop the culture of the family and have the capacity for adaptation that responds to the speed of change in a global, increasingly regional economy.
Dr. Fonseca is Director of the Institute of Business Families at the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
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