Navigating war as a business and as a family business are two separate things. In every business, money comes first. You take tough decisions to keep it profitable. Even companies like Oracle have fired a chunk of their own engine, the team. Family businesses come with an inherent responsibility to keep the business afloat without leaving employees behind. Employees and their families are key stakeholders in a family business. What is better? It depends on who you ask and when you ask. Can a cut-throat hire-and-fire culture maintain a company in the long run? Maybe. Can a business that considers all employees as family be agile in navigating the future? Maybe.

A balancing act of optimism and realism is necessary in business. The business owner who has done well in selling, looking at numbers, and building relationships now has to understand geopolitics. Geopolitics has always been my cup of tea, so I am happy to spend hours listening to podcasts to better understand the war. In team meetings, you share optimism with a tinge of realism, and internally, you carry realism with a tinge of optimism. There is no room for pessimism in life, internally or externally.

Now, you should focus on carrying yourself and your team through this difficult time. Cutting costs is a major part of it. We sent a third of our employees on partially paid holidays, and we moved some to our office back in Kerala, India, at half the pay, both on a temporary basis. We have also cut down on our bills, delayed all hiring processes until the end of the war, and paused all expansion plans. Is this enough? No, you need to create a strategy to get out of the war even more resilient, so that next time, you are not as badly affected by a similar situation. How do you do that?

Diversify, diversify, and diversify. A multinational, yet primarily Arabian Gulf-based family business, has to become truly multi-continental to weather regional storms. We can discuss the process of diversification in more detail later, but it is important to keep thinking about it. This is to protect your business and your team in the long run. Leadership is an amanah, a trust that is placed in you. It is important to treat it with reverence, such that if you see the weak points in your business, it is your duty to make them right.