The document provides background on the fictional Waystar Royco media company from the TV show Succession. It analyzes the company's ownership and family system using various family business models. It finds that Waystar faces significant structural risks due to the complexity of the large, influential business and fractured family relationships. The emperor model of only one (Logan Roy) wielding control left a leadership void upon his death. Recommendations include developing the next generation through entrepreneurship, improving communication across generations, establishing ethical standards, and restructuring governance and leadership.

1. For my case I'm going to use the Roy family from Succession:
Background:
Waystar Royco is a fictional company based on the HBO show entitled Succession. The company
founded by Logan Roy is a billion dollar media company (valued at around 100 Billion) is a media
and entertainment company that caters to a conservative American audience. The company's
portfolio includes movies, tv, amusement parks, cruises, etc.
The Business-Family Ownership system:
1.) Family not involved in business- Logan’s ex-wives, Kendall’s Ex-wife and children
2.) Nonfamily management/employees- not really anyone (however you could probably put a lot of
Waystar employees in here because their stock shares are so low)
3.) Nonfamily owners and/or shareholders: Lukas Matsson, Stewy Hosseini, Sandy Furness
4.) Family owners and/or shareholders: Marcia, Connor, Ewan
5.) Family members who work in the business but are not owners: (they have stock but they're
shares are so low it doesn't matter) Greg Hirsch and Tom Wambsgan
6.) Nonfamily employees who are shareholders: Frank Vernon, Gerri Kellman, Karl Muller, Hugo
Baker, Karolina Novotney
7.) Family members who are owners, management or employees: Logan Roy, Shiv Roy, Kendall Roy,
Roman Roy
Gersick's Development Model
During the length of the show the Ownership system went from Controlling Owner as Logan Roy was
figuring who to select as the next Controlling Owner CEO. After his death it became a Sibling
Partnership until it was resolved to be sold to another outside 3rd party. The Family system was
messy but was loose working together morphing into passing the baton. The business system was
expansion/formalization.

2. Family Business Genogram
Structural Modal Analysis

3. Based on the Gimeno’s model Waystar Royco faced several headwinds which created a lot of
structural risks. The first being how complex both the business (given the size and influence of
the business) and family (given how fractured the relationships among the family members
were). The business was an extremely influential media company that could literally change
how people perceived events, made decisions and even voted in important elections. Logan
was known to have the ear of major world leaders (like sitting U.S. presidents). This along with
the highly combative nature of Logan’s relationships with just about everyone. Most notably his
fractured relationship with his kids eventually trying to oust him out of his own company.
The structure development that was needed to reduce these risks were oftentimes laughed at
by not just employees of the company but also Logan himself. Logan’s nature of wanting to do
business the way he was most comfortable by being the biggest bully in town initially helped
grow his business however in the end this attitude costed the legacy of passing the business on
to the next generation.
Model: Emperor
The model that the business was operating under was the emperor model where there were two
generations of family running the business however at the end of the day only one person was
really calling the shots (Logan before he died). As a result, this left a huge whole in the
business that the family because of all their estrangement and lack of unity could not fill. The
business was also a very complex one being an international media company with so many
divisions.
Use your browser's function to save this report as a PDF and remember to
activate the option "graphs of fund".
For Windows: CTRL + P
For Mac: CMD+P

4. The Four IFEM Development
Competencies Diagnosis
Waystar Inc.
1.9
Overall result
Family Entrepreneurship
2.3 pts.
Description:
Result: Your score report shows that the business family has a low
capacity to reinvent itself through the innovation of its business models
and the creation of new companies or lines of business. This is likely to
be caused by the lack of proper mechanisms to foster entrepreneurship
for multiple generations. It is also difficult for you to seize the window of
opportunities around the megatrends and digital transformation.
Intergenerational Cultural Transmission
1.9 pts.
Description:

5. Result: Your score report shows that the business family has a low
capacity for teamwork, integrate a harmonic family team, and create
synergy between its different members. It probably takes a lot of effort to
establish a constructive dialogue and it's likely to have a lack of
knowledge transfer and education fostering in between generations.
Legacy and Heritage
1.6 pts.
Description:
Result: Your score report shows that the business family has a low
capacity for familiar, material, and social legacy construction, which
generates well-being. This is likely to be caused by the lack of proper
mechanisms to manage wealth, and the need to strengthen the core
family values that promote an ethical and responsible property, and the
purpose of being a conscious business family.
Governance and Leadership
1.8 pts.
Description:
Result: Your score report shows that the business family has limited
ability to ensure both emotional and strategic leadership in the family
and the company. Besides, probably, it does not have governing bodies
of the company-family property system that promotes correct decision-
making.
Institute of Business Families, with address at Rufino Tamayo Street and Av. Eugenio Garza
Lagüera, Valle colony Oriente, city San Pedro Garza García, c.p. 66269, in the entity of Nuevo León,
country, Mexico, will use your data personnel collected for: Data analysis for scientific research,
statistics and data correlation for the intellectual production of refereed publications, input for
intellectual production, educational purposes and of scientific dissemination. For more information
about the treatment and the rights you can assert, You can access the comprehensive privacy notice
through: https://ifem.tec.mx/es/herramientas

6. Questionnaire prepared by Fernando Sandoval Arzaga Ph.D. Associate Director of the
Institute of Families Businesswomen, Tecnológico de Monterrey and María Fonseca
Paredes Ph.D. Director of the Institute of Business Families for Mexico and LATAM,
Tecnológico de Monterrey
http://ifem.tec.mx
ifem@servicios.itesm.mx
+52 (81) 86258300 ext. 6403
Recommendations for the Competencies
Family Entrepreneurship
Based on the rating of 2.3 for this category, family entrepreneurship is an area that needs
developing. The lack of mechanisms to develop entrepreneurship in the next generation was the key
factor in the low rating. So a recommendation would be to create small programs that are
autonomously run by certain family members where they can experiment, fail, learn and succeed
rapidly through trial and error. Also bringing in experts on how to better learn how to do this by
trusted 3rd parties could be advantageous as well.
Intergenerational Transmission
This category also had a low score due to the lack of constructive dialogues that were able to
happen across generations of the family that was working at the company. Logan most definitely
contributed heavily to this type of very aggressive, ineffective and destructive communication style
which spread prevalently leading to an environment of low trust, low accountability and
backstabbing. The only way to turn this around would be some training on how to communicate in
respective ways, establishing rules of how one will communicate and then taking action against
those that do not abide by those ways (including the founder).
Legacy and Heritage
This category was scored low largely due to the lack of ethical practices the family and business had
been engaging in as a whole. This probably stems from the environment that was described in the
previous paragraph which leads to really bad behavior (the situation with the cruises is an example
of how bad the behavior of the employees of the company was and even worse that Logan as CEO
allowed this behavior to go on for years). My suggestion would be a reset on this cultural dynamic
by setting clear expectations of what is ethical and the standard behavior for the company. Then
holding people accountable especially those in senior leadership that are not living up to these
standards.

7. Governance and Leadership
The score for this category was also very low due to lack of using the system the company had in
place to effectively govern and manage the company well. Waystar Royco went through several
crises and the board never seemed to be able to steer the ship in the right direction. This indicates
to me not only a dysfunctional board but also how ineffective the executive team was operating.
Thus, my recommendation would be to restructure these two structures so that the board can really
enable the company to reach it’s true potential and also get the executive team on the right track.
RECOMMENDATIONS MOVING FORWARD
1.) Developing the next generation
a.) Defining the vision via capabilities aka increase structural development empirically
i.) The first thing needed to help make this company better is to simply define
what the future should be and then test out these ideas in small experiments.
Once we are able to define a vision and have empirical evidence that there is
potential here then we can make better hypothesis about how to establish
better best practices to enable our organizations to have more capabilities in
the future
b.) Reducing the Business Complexity
i.) While the run with all the parts of the entertainment and media company has
been great, given the overly complicated nature of everything and the not so
great relationships in the family reducing the business complexities by selling
off some of the assets would be ideal
2.) Board recommendations
a.) Aim to develop structure to create long term value
i.) The main problem that has allowed these various things to fester is short
term thinking about making money. If the board were to concern itself with
focusing on how this company will create value not just for shareholders in
the short term but ALL stakeholders (employees, customers, country and
etc.) long term then they’d realize that you need to pivot to value added
activities. Also holding the executive team accountable to any unethical
things that happen under their watch.