{"id":4241,"date":"2019-05-24T09:26:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T13:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/?p=4241"},"modified":"2019-12-18T13:17:33","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T18:17:33","slug":"blessings-and-burdens-family-businesses-a-marketplace-ministry-of-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2019\/05\/24\/blessings-and-burdens-family-businesses-a-marketplace-ministry-of-reconciliation\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessings and Burdens: Family businesses a \u2018marketplace ministry\u2019 of reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Sally Landis Derstine ’82 talks about family dynamics in the meeting room of the Delaware Valley Family Business Center in Telford, Pennsylvania, where she is managing parter and senior advisor.<\/p><\/div>\n

FAMILY AND BUSINESS<\/strong> are each complicated in their own right. And family businesses?<\/p>\n

\u201cFamily business is complex,\u201d said Sally Landis Derstine ’82<\/strong>, \u201cbecause there is an overlap of three different systems: family, business and ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The managing partner and a senior advisor at the Delaware Valley Family Business Center in Telford, Pennsylvania, Derstine grew up in a family with a business, and so has first-hand experience of the accompanying \u201cblessings and burdens.\u201d<\/p>\n

While family businesses are \u201cthe backbone of our economy\u201d \u2013 a widely-quoted statistic is that they make up 90 percent of US enterprises \u2013 most don\u2019t make it to or survive second-generation ownership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not because families are defective,\u201d Derstine said. \u201cIt\u2019s because they don\u2019t understand the complexity and how to manage it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s developed a unique model that depicts the teams and structures \u2013 family, shareholder, board, advisor and management \u2013 that families in business together must develop and foster to have healthy relationships and sustainability. Multi-generational business leadership and ownership is decidedly more mountain-climbing marathon than sprint, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work requires leaning into awkward, crucial conversations and lots of naming reality or \u2018telling the truth in love,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI enjoy guiding business families to \u2018make peace\u2019 and create the futures they want instead of \u2018keeping the peace,\u2019 or avoiding delicate discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derstine joined the center in 1992 and became its managing partner in 2014. Founded by Henry Landes in 1988, they have served hundreds of families, in part through a Family Business Learning Community that Derstine helped launch in her first year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a deep sense of gratitude and delight when our clients find their voice, gain clarity, make wise choices and are reconciled to themselves, their family, to God,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery day confirms that my work is marketplace ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a student at EMU, Derstine \u201cdeeply appreciated\u201d communication and business classes with Loren Johns<\/strong>, psychology classes with Galen Lehman ’73<\/strong>, and playing field hockey for Sandy Brownscombe<\/strong>. (The team was the first in EMU history to qualify for a national tournament, and was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2012.)<\/p>\n

But her career training, she said, began in the cradle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to my parents, siblings and extended family for teaching me about what\u2019s really important in life, what it means to live compassionately and simply, love deeply, forgive and extend grace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She and her husband Douglas Derstine ’82<\/strong>, who completed 36 years as a middle and high school teacher, delight in their growing family, which includes three children and a granddaughter. Derstine\u2019s generational impact, though, also includes the families she helps through her work to \u201cfind their voice and make wise choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that, she said, is \u201ca sacred privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAMILY AND BUSINESS are each complicated in their own right. And family businesses? \u201cFamily business is complex,\u201d said Sally Landis Derstine ’82, \u201cbecause there is an overlap of three different systems: family, business and ownership.\u201d The managing partner and a senior advisor at the Delaware Valley Family Business Center in Telford, Pennsylvania, Derstine grew up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":4286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,947],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-springsummer-2019","issues-current-issue","issues-spring-summer-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4287,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4241\/revisions\/4287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}