38 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
There is a confusion of roles between the social system of the family and
the business system (Kets de Vries, Carlock and Florent - Treacy, 2007 ).
At the root of these confl icts are feelings of rivalry, where the confl ict -
ridden relationship that the entrepreneur had with his parents is now
transferred towards his son. There is frequently a re - enactment of the
old family romance, when the son or daughter of the entrepreneur is
exposed to the same treatment the entrepreneur felt he or she once
endured. But now it is the entrepreneur who is in the position of author-
ity and control.
This unholy repetition of family dynamics occurs, particularly with
the sons of male entrepreneurs. In their turn, they are now dependent
on the entrepreneur ’ s whims, vulnerable to his erratic and unpredictable
behavior and kept in an infantile position. The idea of abdication, of
stepping down, is obviously resented by the entrepreneur; the fact that
he will be succeeded by his son gives rise to more complicated feelings.
The resentment will be increased incrementally with the trauma of
reawakening old feelings of rivalry, with all their connotations of frus-
tration and despair.
Edsel Ford ’ s relationship to his father, Henry Ford, the founder of
the automobile company, is a good illustration of the abrasive dimensions
these confl icts can reach and the destructiveness of this type of rivalry
to the enterprise ( Jardim, 1970 ). Henry Ford ’ s refusal to change strategy,
or to make alterations to the Model T, and his unwillingness to encour-
age Edsel Ford in his efforts to build an infrastructure and suprastructure
brought the company to the edge of bankruptcy. Under extraordinary
pressure, changes were eventually made but at an extremely high cost
in material resources and manpower. Sometimes, extreme old age or
death are the only circumstances under which control can be taken away
from the entrepreneur. Unfortunately, by that stage it might be too late
to save the enterprise.
Successful entrepreneurs who manage to guide their enterprises
through the formative period of development into a stage of growth and
maturity may follow a path that eventually leads to their own functional
self - elimination. They are people at the crossroads, enigmas, on the one
hand highly creative and imaginative but, on the other, rigid, unwilling
to change, incapable of confronting the issue of succession. Succession
becomes identifi ed with loss — death being the most dramatic form of
loss — and therefore becomes taboo. But the issue of succession is inevi-
table not only for reasons of age but also because of increasing maturation
and growth of the company. The entrepreneur is no longer alone; other
interest groups such as employees, family members, bankers, customers,
suppliers and the government have become involved. Depending on the