The First Twenty One Clear Newsletter

We write about anything to help you chaos proof your family business so you can build a great company with a strong family around it.

Welcome to the 21 Clear newsletter!

In early 2024, I stumbled across two questions that have intrigued me ever since:

When families work together, we want to build a great company with a healthy family around it.

• Why does the opposite happen so often?

• What can you do?

Over the years, I have appreciated how business authors like Jim Collins and Pat Lencioni approach profound questions. How do you go from good to great? How do you prevent workplace misery? They take these audacious questions, break them into simple sounding ideas and give you hope of reaching a better place.

I wondered how to do the same for family businesses. So many of us never build the great company we imagine. Some of us watch the company and its assets fracture family relationships. Even worse, both the company and the family can suffer simultaneously.

These downfalls are chaotic, sweeping away wealth, reputation and connection. But in the same way Collins believes you can be great by choice and Lencioni believes organizational health gives you an advantage, I stubbornly came to believe that family business chaos is no inevitable.

It takes dedicated work, focus, and effort every day that a family works together in an organization that they own and control. I founded 21 Clear to end family business chaos by providing resources and consulting services for those audacious enough to work together.

Who am I to write about this?

I had to embrace that I am uniquely qualified to write in the family business space.

From September 2010 to December 2023, I had an insider’s view of our family’s company. I joined the company as its General Counsel, reporting to my father, which immediately put me in the center of the company’s sales, operations, client relationships and tough issues.

The first office I used was next to my grandfather. From September 2010 until July 2013, my grandfather, Bill Hatcher, was the company’s CEO while my father, Randy, was the President. My cousin also worked with me for a few years, and my brother joined in September 2013.

From my first day, I had a front-row seat to the company and the family’s most significant decisions and issues. I worked through the highs and lows of growing a family business. I know what chaos is first hand.

Working with family also opened a surprising door. Family businesses are a fascinating club. I have sat with companies with a few million in top line revenue and others who are worth hundreds of millions. One family shares a condominium on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Another could buy Jekyll Island, or at least a lot of shoreline miles nearby. And amazingly, despite the money, we all tell the same stories.

Why this newsletter?

This monthly (for now) newsletter is part of the content that we are producing to help end family business chaos. Each time you read it, for whatever time you give it, I want you to enjoy the rare occasion to focus solely on the family business in the center of your company.

Each edition will share goings on at 21C, some longer form thoughts, and key numbers and news stories that matter to family members who work together.

Family Business in the News

1. Marriott’s unflinching value

Click here for a story about how Marriott's CEO got 40,000 emails

The story of the Marriott family grabbed my attention last week. I will wade into political waters (first newsletter!), but only to show how powerful an unflinching family resolve is.

Marriott is a nearly 100-year-old, public traded company, with the family holding at least 16% of the company’s shares. David Marriott is the company’s current chair, and he succeeded former chair Bill Marriott.

Diversity, equity and inclusion have been in the political crosshairs for quite some time, with the temperature spiking up over the past few months. Marriott, who has over 800,000 associates around the world, had not sent a statement into the whirlwind.

But, at an industry conference, the company’s non-family CEO David Capuano stepped in.

Rather than stay silent, Capuano recalled many conversations with his mentor and former chair Bill Marriott…

“The winds blow, but there are some fundamental trusts for those 90 years,” Capuano said. “We welcome all to our hotels and we create opportunities for all—and fundamentally those will never change. The words might change, but that’s who we are as a company.

The next day, Capuano had 40,000 emails from Marriott associates saying thank you.

Capuano understood the Marriott family’s values. Regardless of the changing climate, if a cultural shift rubbed up against those values, he felt free to talk about it.

This story highlighted to me the power and alignment your family can give the company with clear, unwavering values driven into the organization. The value of inclusion passed down from one generation to the next, allowed Capuano to speak freely inside that clarity. And those 40,000 email show that employees of family companies appreciate that alignment. It should not surprise us that Marriott is in the Top 10 on Fortune’s 2025 Best Companies to Work For list.

2. James Bond has a family business?!

Click here for Sara Davis’s LinkedIn post about the family control of James Bond.

Did you know that the James Bond franchise is a family business?!

Sara Davis, the Director of Kennesaw State University’s Family Enterprise Center wrote a fun LinkedIn post about this recently. Over lunch, Sara and I talked about the spat between the Broccoli family and Amazon over the creative direction of James Bond. The Broccoli family controls James Bond.

In reading her post, and thinking about different family companies I have talked to, I realized family-owned companies need to decide what matters, if any, are permanent. Which decisions will survive beyond the current employees, affecting future family generations? Those decisions make a more permanent than others.

For the Broccoli family, two of those issues are the casting of James Bond and the plot of the films. Barbara Broccoli, speaking for the family on why she disliked Amazon’s algorithm approach to casting and plot, said, “Don’t have temporary people make permanent decisions.”

For you, do major strategic changes run through the family, like diversifying business lines or setting a tolerable debt load? Do changes to the core values have to go to the family? Does the family review the multi-year budget projections or speak into key hiring criteria? Are there particular policies, like severance, that the family wants to influence?

Whatever those more permanent issues are for your family company, those diamonds that are forever :-), decide them clearly together, and then drive the decisions into the organization.

News from 21 Clear

We just published the company’s first podcast!

Click here for a link to the podcast page.

In the first episode, I explore the unique dynamics of family businesses, sharing insights from my experience of growing a successful family company.

Join me as I discuss the nuances of working with family, the challenges that arise, and the importance of distinguishing the family business within the broader company structure. I share candid stories and lessons learned to help listeners navigate the complexities of maintaining a great company and a strong family.

Wrap up

Thank you for being a part of our first newsletter. Please drop a quick comment with feedback, suggestions or questions. That will help us improve next month.

Till then, as my grandfather would say, thank you so very, very much for reading,

Adam Hatcher, for 21 Clear