Doug Gray, PhD: Preparing the Next Generation of Family Business Leaders

The world is currently in the middle of the largest transfer of wealth in human history – valued at $68 trillion – with the Baby Boomer generation retiring and passing on their wealth, including family businesses, to their heirs, Millennials and Generation Z. 

The previous generation may say that they’re ready to pass on the family business to the next generations, but are the recipients ready? Statistics show that around 70% of family businesses fail or are sold before the second generation, and only roughly 10% survive until the third generation, the founder’s grandchildren. This is a major worry among business families, which is why there is a need for training and coaching to ensure that the next generations are well-equipped to inherit the organization and allow for an orderly transition. 

Seeing this important need, Doug Gray, Ph.D., Leadership Consultant, Executive Coach, and Founder-President of Action Learning Associates, focuses on strengthening family business leaders by working on both sides – the family and the business. 

 

Action Learning Associates, which Dr. Gray established in 1997, provides a wide variety of business consulting and coaching services, for both groups and individuals. Dr. Gray says that several years ago, he started focusing on family businesses due to the urgent needs of the Great Wealth Transfer. The fact is that 65% of the US gross domestic product is driven by privately-owned businesses, and only around 30% is by publicly-traded companies. Most consulting programs have access to publicly traded data, which is why MBA programs focus on publicly traded companies. Instead, they need to focus on privately held family business leaders.   

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Gray has always focused on training the next generation, as he knows that successful people are a product of their teams – teams drive success not individuals. 

As an avid athlete, Dr. Gray frequently participated in adventure racing, a sport where teams navigate a wilderness course over 10 days, involving climbing, mountain biking, trail running, canoeing, and other activities. He and his teams finished every race they participated in, which is an extraordinary result, as only 30% of teams completed a race. Dr. Gray demonstrated expertise as an athlete and philanthropist. Those skills can be applied to any business, team, or organization. 

In his 20s, Dr. Gray worked as a wilderness instructor for major outdoor education organizations. He mastered the skills of leadership development with a group of strangers who needed to excel in an unfamiliar environment. He also worked at several independent prep schools as a teacher, athletic coach, and administrator. He directed a next-gen program for hundreds of leaders at a non-profit Quaker school: 

“In this phase of my life, I learned and relearned every day how to give faculty and younger people the capacity to develop their strengths, and I loved it,” Dr. Gray says. “My decade with independent prep schools was a tremendous opportunity to learn how essential it is for next-gen leaders to know that they can grow and develop.” 

Dr. Gray also developed the Leadership Development Institute at the University of Maryland, College Park, and taught there for seven years, and he was a former adjunct faculty member at several colleges. 

Dr. Gray has worked with over ten thousand business leaders in his career. Those leaders represent multiple sectors including healthcare, energy, manufacturing, IT, construction, and finance. He can work with such a wide variety of leaders because he has the expertise to support them, without too much complicating industry-specific knowledge. He holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership and industrial psychology from The Chicago School. His dissertation research focused on how to incorporate positive psychology coaching to help leaders develop and flourish. 

“As a behavioral psychologist, I focus on what people say or do,” Dr. Gray says. “I’ve learned that family enterprises are more complex than any other type of business, so my model describes the complex relationships of five systems—the individual, family, business, learning, and ownership systems.  There is nothing new about Systems Thinking, but the applications for family business leaders are new and we can reduce that complexity.” 

With his professional and educational expertise, Dr. Gray prepares the next generation of family business leaders. He created two valuable tools: the Assess Next Gen^TM 360 Leadership Process, which helps family business leaders identify the most likely path to succession success for their family and non-family leaders. His Next Gen Peer Group Programs are designed to accelerate family business leaders who want to connect, decrease conflict, and increase communication using his digital content platform and books with like-minded leaders. 

“I have tremendous optimism in people's capacity to flourish,” Dr. Gray says. He knows that everyone needs a capable and supportive team. He says “I'm a product of my teams. Every one of my clients has shaped where I am now. My family, my clients, my reading and research – all of them have been formative. My focus has always been on developing next-gen leaders because they define the social fabric of every community and our future.” 

Media contact: 

Name: Dr. Doug Gray 

Email: [email protected]