Mitzi Perdue

A New Way to Engage Next Gens in the Family Business

What if Facebook met LinkedIn and decided to have a Family Business baby?

In Esrock’s view, people in family businesses have a need for the kinds of information and encouragement that are unique to members of family businesses.  Some of these include:

• Sibling rivalries in the company
• Gender issues in the company
• Age issues, such as younger members not feeling listened to, or older members not feeling respected.
• Philanthropic goals for the family
• Underperforming family members working in the business
• The effect of substance abuse on the family business
• Dealing with rivalrous cousins
• Dealing with in-laws working in the business
• Dealing with in-laws who aren’t in the business
• Creating ways of engaging the family’s younger members so they want to be in the family business.
• Family members who are looking for ways to contribute to the family’s legacy and heritage.

The list of potential areas where members of a family business could benefit from interacting with others could fill many pages, but you get the idea.

Allen Esrock sees his new website, www.nxtgennexus.com, as a major force for making these kinds of interactions possible. As he says, “We’re uniting the next generation of family business owners using social networking, blogs and interactive content to help them grow their Family Businesses.”

His website www.nxtgennexus.com is particularly focused on engaging members of GEN x and GEN Z, since these are people who grew up relating through social media. Visitors to the site interact with others with similar needs and interests, and they can interact with people on any part of the planet.

Most of all, they can interact with others who know exactly what it’s like growing up in a family business, and they can receive matches, like a dating site, where they’ll meet people with similar interests or concerns.  Privacy is a primary issue so all users’ identities are masked until they reach out to a potential match.

Here’s how it works:

• Fill out Form – Family Business NxtGen (User A) fills out a brief questionnaire.
• Review Matches – User A receives matches that can be sorted by newness or compatibility. The identities and e-mail addresses of matches are masked so User A doesn’t know the identity of User B.
• User A Initial Outreach – User A contacts a match (User B) via the NxtGen Nexus e-mail. User A still doesn’t know the true identity of User B.
• Match Revealed – User B receives User A’s email which reveals User A’s name and e-mail address, which will appear in User B’s e-mail.
• “User B” Response – If User B chooses to respond, User B’s e-mail will be revealed to User A

Esrock is passionate about the potential for what he’s doing.  “Family Business is an unusual marketplace because it encompasses businesses of different sizes, industry types, longevity and location.  However, the problems that arise from the overlap of family, business and family wealth are the same whether a business is in Montgomery, Montreal or Mumbai.  We want to capture the zeitgeist of being a family business NxtGen and share it around the world.”   

His final thought is, “Visit the website and please give us feedback. We’re building it for you, so let us know what parts really deliver value and what we should do more of.”

You can contact Allen Esrock at allen.esrock@nxtgennexus.com.