Succession and Management In A Kung Fu School

This page introduces the issue of succession in any family business, and more particularly in a martial arts school where, generally, it is the family members who are most likely to be expected to suceed the older generation.

One might ask, "I've looked at my own childhood and my childhood view of martial arts. Somehow I want to compare my own 'attitude' then with the attitude I see NOW, in my own children!"

No matter how traditional or "correct" a black belt may be, are there cultural or generational differences that make a six-year old black belt different from a six-year old aspiring child 50 years ago?

Also, what long-term look into the future of martial arts in general, within something that might be called the "fitness industry" and more specifically into the future of Kung Fu, and very specifically into the future for Yong Moon Moo Kwan!

The world facing second generation entrepreneurs is more complicated than the one in which our parents had success. Technology, competition, and workforces are ever changing in today's business environment and make up some of the most difficult challenges for "new" entrepreneurs. Couple these issues with the fact that the founder may still be actively involved and the job of running a family business by the second generation becomes monumental. Source

But in reality, very large numbers fail to make the leap. Only a third of businesses successfully make the transition from each generation to the next, says Mr Astrachan—“and that figure has been very stable, and is true around the globe.” The majority are either sold or wound up after the founder's death. Some studies suggest that only 5% of family firms are still creating shareholder value beyond the third generation. (Source)

Click here for a useful Wall Street Journal article describing the "fitness industry" and HERE for another WSJ article on the problems with succession in a family business. (While these two articles are in the public area of this web site, the pages in this restricted section are generally available only to those given the password.)

The urban workplace changed dramatically in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The American Revolution, with its rampant egalitarianism, dissolved much of the paternalistic control once wielded by fathers, masters and other authority figures, as the anonymous author “Old Apprentice” made clear in his set of three letters to the New York Observer in 1826. But significant blame for this erosion rested with the manufacturers themselves. Eager to seize upon new markets with expanded production, they divided up tasks to produce cheaper clothing or shoes. Semiskilled and unskilled women and children performed this labor rather than apprentices or other workingmen of the traditional artisanal system. These changes also dissolved the traditional residential patterns, pushing working men out into the housing market. A loss of reciprocity and responsibility occurred on both sides. (Source)

Garth, my son, is a very successful building contractor. He has been building houses for many years, expanding every year. In a recent year his crews built more than 10,000 houses on the East Coast. He asked me for help in getting his eMail program installed and help on being able to send eMails. Among other pieces of advice a father could give a son, I pointed out that there were two quite separate types of "technologies" in any business (or any entity).

There is the technology, for him, of hammers and nails, and also the technology of accounts receivable, personnel, marketing etc. He is a brilliant man when it comes to construction technology. He has not done well at all as an organizational manager.

My son, Garth, has "fire in the belly" about the construction business but a vast distaste for organizational management. You can't really suceed brilliantly, I think, without fire in the belly about SOMETHING.

We recently invited the surgeon who saved Bonnie's life from cancer in October, 2004. I asked her when it was that she decided she wanted to be a "surgeon." Her answer, "I knew that is what I would be when I was three years old!" You might ask yourselves, when was it that you decided to pursue the path you are now on??? Where, around you now, is that fire in the belly?

What happens in an organization like this is that the brilliant technical people, for instance in construction, or martial arts, get dragged by circumstances into the organizational structure, planning and marketing of their activites. Being brilliant in one area does not at all mean you are automatically good in the other. The person who is brilliant in the technical technology of his activity (construction or martial arts) finally gets stretched real thin trying to do parts of the business for which he or she has no great training or interest.

I encouraged you to read two links above -- here is a quote from one of them:

It's a quandary entrepreneurs of many ilk face: When the business is you, how can it stay viable once your personal limits are reached? It's true whether you're a consultant or hairstylist, a model or pro athlete. Sometimes the limitation is an aging face and body; other times it's simply the number of hours one person can work in a day. Parlaying celebrity, however temporary or localized, into an enterprise with longevity requires some universal steps -- from finding other mediums beyond yourself to deliver the brand to having the confidence to tap others who can lead where you can't.

"Regardless of the strengths of the celebrity founder, the key to successful business development is a strong management team that can remove the actual product from the personality," says Deborah Larrison, head of Citigroup Capital Strategies, a unit of Smith Barney serving owners of privately held businesses. "Another key is that the personality not be the actual product. For example, as celebrity fades a useless product is exactly that -- useless." (Source)

How does a traditional Kung Fu school fit within the rather fractured martial arts world, and how do the martial arts schools fit within the larger framework of the $14 billion annual "fitness industry?"

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Ilaria Montagnani

Unlike most channels of commerce, there are few clear long-term entrepreneurial paths for those such as Ms. Montagnani. That's partly because new ideas in her field don't have a natural path to market the way, say, consumer goods do. Health clubs shy away from paying for proprietary class content -- often preferring to develop programs they own in-house -- and selling workout products is tough unless you're already a brand name. Some teachers open their own studios. But that's increasingly difficult with industry consolidation into the hands of big names with one-stop fitness and spa shopping, such as Crunch, Equinox and Sports Club/LA.

"Not a lot of young people are choosing this industry as a career anymore," says Carol Espel, the national director for group fitness at Equinox Fitness Clubs who oversees nearly 1,000 instructors nationally. "The ones who are really serious and organized and smart do what Ilaria is trying to do. To be successful at it, there are very, very few."

The "few" are now household names -- among the most prominent, Richard Simmons, Jack La Lanne and Billy Blanks, the founder of Tae Bo. In each case, these instructors carved out a specific fitness niche and then used various means to leverage their personalities out of a local market and onto a national and international platform. That, in turn, has allowed them to keep teaching well past their prime.

"It's the same philosophy as selling Avon: We are selling our services," says the 58-year-old Mr. Simmons. "You have to figure out what you have to offer in the area where you work." For Mr. Simmons, the breakout medium was video.

He has sold more than 20 million copies of his 50 fitness tapes and DVDs, including "Sweatin' to the Oldies." That has given him cachet in nonfitness areas; for instance, he has a new line of kitchenware with Salton Inc. due out later this year. He's also expanding the "Richard Simmons Method" through a $195 weekend of coaching called "Hoot Camp" for fitness instructors, trainers and others.

With this diversification, says Mr. Simmons, "I think there will be these people who will continue to teach and have my same philosophies. When I'm long dead and gone, it will still be, 'Love yourself, watch your portions and move your buns.' "

There is still a long road between Mr. Simmons and Ms. Montagnani, who currently runs Powerstrike out of her one-bedroom Manhattan apartment and answers all her own email. But her journey thus far offers a window into the kinds of sacrifices required when creating an enduring business whose core brand is, at the end of the day, you.

"To be sustainable, there has to be a process and a system," says Doug Hall, one of the judges on the ABC reality series "American Inventor," and the 47-year-old founder of Eureka Ranch, an invention and research firm. "The challenge is the ego. You have to make the shift from being a doer to a teacher." (Source)

What you want is not always what you need.

Karl