The succession conversation nobody wants to start
Rami sits with a father and daughter who run a bakery chain in Beirut and have never discussed who takes over. With a family business advisor, they finally start the conversation on air.
Paying your brother what he is actually worth
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Show notes
Paying your brother what he is actually worth
Two brothers in Muscat have drawn the same salary from their trading company for fifteen years. One runs operations seventy hours a week, the other handles a few key clients. Nobody has complained, out loud. Rami and an accountant who specialises in family firms take it apart.
- Equal is not the same as fair, and why families confuse the two
- Separating salary for work from dividends for ownership
- How to benchmark a role when the person in it is your brother
- The spouse factor: who is really keeping score
- A formula the brothers agreed to try for one year
Next episode: when a cousin wants to sell their shares.
Transcript
Welcome back to Dad Still Signs the Cheques, I am Rami Haddad. This week we are in Muscat with two brothers who own a trading company together, and who have taken home exactly the same salary every month for fifteen years. One of them runs the warehouse, the drivers, the bank, everything, seventy hours a week. The other looks after three big clients and plays a lot of golf. Neither of them has ever said a word about it. Their wives have. So I have brought an accountant who works only with family firms, and we are going to separate two things that families mix up constantly: pay for the work you do and returns for the shares you own. By the end there is a formula on the table, and both brothers agreed to try it for a year. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
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