Clan Value - a Foreword

The lesson of my life: I am nothing without my clan, my clan is nothing without me.

A clear system of values, sticking together, a feeling of security, safety. Add to this a pinch of luck, mix well together and success will soon follow.

So far, so naive.

When I started out to found my own business almost 20 years ago, I had all these terms floating around in my head as components of my business model which I was going to develop. I wanted to be successful but remain fair. I wanted to earn money but still be trustworthy and dependable for my business partners. I wanted to help bring my ideas, and with them, my business to fruition. At the same time, in all this there was no intention that a pushy mentality should become my guiding philosophy. I therefore knew fairly precisely what I wanted. Not quite so clear to me was how I could achieve all this.

Today, many experiences later, I know: whatever I have achieved, I owe it to my clan.

Without my partner, without my colleagues, without my family, without my clients, I would be nothing. I would not have been willing to take any risks without all these certainties which have grown from my close-knit relationship network – from friendships and partnerships, from commitment and trust, from the backing of a small family and readiness to help on a large scale.

I now know that family and business are two sides of the same coin. That my business belongs to the family and my family belongs to the business. That I can be successful, strong and reliable as a businesswoman, as a mother, as a daughter and as a sister because I know my clan is around me, protecting me. Because I feel safe and even shielded if need be. Because I can rely on Lolo Pitzal: she is my sister and at the same time the attorney whom I and my colleagues trust the most. Because I know that Hans Spann is like a brother to me, although he is not related to me but has been our Senior Consultant for many years and one of my most important network partners. Because I know my friend and partner Madhu Einsiedler so well that for years I have been able to turn to her without any reservations, like a grown-up daughter, even in the trickiest situations. 

In short: I have understood that my business is successful because it functions like an extended family, just like a clan. It incorporates my blood relatives but also provides my many kindred and congenial spirits with space to develop their creativity.

Since then, I have been building on this knowledge. Quite intentionally I manage my own business and also my family today according to those rules which we, as the Heller clan, have developed jointly over the years.

These rules ensure that we treat one another with respect. That we motivate one another. That we work with great passion for our clients but that we also passionately pursue the care and further development of our clan.

We have agreed on a clear code of behavior. We therefore jointly ensure that each of us can fulfil their duties in the business and the family free from anxiety. However, we also care that these rules endure in external relationships. Clients who do not treat one of us in accordance with these guiding principles are gently put on track. Or, in very rare exceptional cases, are just as gently excluded from the circle of our clients.

With this model, we in the Heller clan have found a way of bringing ourselves closer to our goal, even in economically difficult times. We want to be successful in all our joint businesses. There is just one caveat to this rule: we want to enjoy what we are doing.

I am well aware that this is not a generally valid goal in present-day economic life – to put it mildly: the principle of profit continues to stand on its own at the top of the list of priorities: so-called soft factors are much further down. Such as values or visions.

It has not escaped my notice however that the ego-centered models of business organization are still understood by many as the ultimate pearl of wisdom.

I see that the development of the business world today is strongly defined by the business practices of international conglomerates, although the largest proportion of businesses today are run as family businesses.

I know that more and more people are pursuing their professional activity within the framework of a lonely and unprotected Me-corporation.

From my own bitter experience, I can definitely confirm that families break up. Increasingly frequently from henceforth, they will take the form of a household headed by only one adult.

Precisely because I know just how things are, I want to put up some resistance.

Because I see that family bonds today are often no longer strong enough on their own, I want to provide them with the model of the clan value as a particularly sustainable alternative, as I shall show on the following pages.

Because I find again and again in my work as a business consultant that small family businesses are frequently confronted with similar problems to the local units of global companies, I can present the clan concept here as almost universally viable: the structures of the clan will not only open new worlds to the small or medium businesses. Benevolent associations or football associations, after-work organizations such as the Rotarians or political parties can also be organized and managed according to the clan principles if they share a vision and the principle of honesty. The size of a business is not relevant here: what is important is primarily the will to create something special, something unique.

For all these reasons, this book is designed as instructions for action and pointers for people having very different aspirations: it describes development steps towards the clan structure which are simple, target-oriented and rapid to implement. It provides a wealth of soft facts which are willfully neglected in traditional business consultancy. Categories such as braveness, hope, civil courage or joy in experimenting are as important in realizing the clan value as the air we breathe.

Finally, the book should be read as an impetus for a discourse on company policy: where shareholder value is increasingly leading up the blind alley of workplace annihilation, clan value can be configured as a meaningful, work-creating expedient. Where humanity has a raw deal because anonymous cost management has taken on the character of a religion, the clan is offered as home: when people spend more time with their work colleagues than with their own children, it is the duty of the businessman to create a home for his colleagues, a stimulating environment, an atmosphere providing an impetus for high performance.

In this sense, this book is a challenge for you to be creative. To risk experiments. To tread unconventional paths. As long as you build on the securities of the clan, you can confidently move along unmarked paths and penetrate into hitherto uncharted territory.

As you open gates and doors again and again on your path through life, to advance towards new challenges, opportunities and possibilities, you can walk through the following chapters like rooms. You can push open the large gate in order to then acquaint yourself room by room in the predefined sequence. However, you can also let yourself drift and initially open any door you wish. What you find behind it will inspire and motivate you to go further and further, even beyond the book.

Whichever way you choose – follow me. Then clan value will open your door to success.