Beirat in der Krise

Based on 24 Interviews with owners of family business, directors and restructuring experts the impact of economic crisis on advisory boards of German family business is analyzed. Economic crisis are exceptional situations in family business, in which the special connection between family and business is subjected to particular stress. Here, critical conflict situations both between families and their business as well as in relation to external stakeholders can arise and may affect the success of a financial restructuring. At this point, the Beirat (board of directors) as the typical advisory board of German family business is in a unique position: as a facilitator between the various stakeholders the Beirat may add considerable value in dealing with conflicts that arise from different interests during the restructuring. However, this requires a deep understanding of the actors in the processes of change in the environment of a Beirat during a economic crisis and a consequent preparation of the board on this.