In this Engaged Ownership Skillbuilder, you will learn practical tools to improve the meetings in your family business. Simply put, meetings are a means of coming together to share information and make decisions, whether they happen in a formal or informal context. Improving how you share information and make decisions will have a meaningful impact on the future of your family business.
Sparks vs. Causes
“Who is to blame?'“ is a sticky subject in family businesses.
Blair Trippe and Doug Baumoel’s excellent book, Deconstructing Conflict reminds us that the causes of conflict in a family business may not be as obvious as we first assume, and that it is worth delving deep to understand conflict and possible measures to resolve or ease it. It reminds us that there are layers of causation, and that what sparks conflict may not have much to do with the actual cause.
Family Employment Policies: Scarcity and Abundance
One of my clients, a non-family CEO of a substantial family business, sometimes describes his own mindset toward business decisions in terms of scarcity and abundance. When he’s in scarcity mode, he finds himself thinking of a particular issue or transaction as a zero-sum game. He begins to hoard opportunities, to be defensive and paranoid about others’ motives. Recognizing his mindset, he has learned to stop himself and think instead in terms of abundance. By envisioning multiple mutually-positive potential outcomes—opportunities for win-win solutions—he finds he is more creative and more open to possibility.
Investing in Possibility: An IPS for Human Capital
Investment Policy Statements. Asset allocation. Portfolio reviews. Investors have developed sophisticated systems that enable them to choose among investment options and manage and track the performance of their Financial Capital. These systems enable investors to create detailed plans, identify opportunities and weaknesses, and monitor performance. But, what about Human Capital?
Sore Winners
Say you and your family own a business together, and you’re trying to make a major decision. You agree to take a vote. That’s fair, right?
When it comes to fairness in decision-making, it’s a two-part analysis: For a decision to be considered fair, the participants must believe that both the outcome of the vote and the process by which it was conducted are fair.
Succession Planning for the Founder's Family Office
For a Single Family Office led by its founder, succession planning is often the last thing on the founder’s mind. But failure to plan for the office’s scope and services after the founder’s demise can leave the family and the family office staff alike in an impossible situation, and put at risk the wealth that the founder worked so hard to create.
This comprehensive article provides thorough analysis and actionable recommendations addressing succession planning in single family offices.
Is the Money Ever Supposed to Come Out?
Consensus, Super Majority, Majority: Why Voting Thresholds Matter
Much is being made about Senate voting thresholds in the press these days. When can the Senate act by simple majority? When must there be a super majority of 60 votes rather than 51? More relevant to our purposes: what do the sometimes-arcane voting rules of the U.S. Senate have to do with family business decision-making?
More than you might think…
A Matter of Trusts
“A Matter of Trusts” is an in-depth assessment of how to more effectively implement family business ownership succession planning through trusts. For an introduction to the subject of trusts in family business ownership, read, “How to Read a Trust.”
Teaching Kids Money Skills Pt 2.
BEING RESPONSIBLE WITH MONEY IS A LEARNED SKILL
The more you talk openly with your kids while reinforcing good money skills, the earlier your children will become confident and competent in their abilities to manage their financial capital. Below are a few areas which can be problematic for families, with suggestions that could help. We’ve targeted these for middle school-aged kids, but the ideas can be adjusted based on your kids’ ages.
Teaching Kids Money Skills Pt. 1
BEING RESPONSIBLE WITH MONEY IS A LEARNED SKILL
The more you talk openly with your kids while reinforcing good money skills, the earlier your children will become confident and competent in their abilities to manage their financial capital. Below are a few areas which can be problematic for families, with suggestions that could help. We’ve targeted these for middle school-aged kids, but the ideas can be adjusted based on your kids’ ages.
The Three-Circle Model Explained
Created in the 1970’s by professors John Davis and Renato Tagiuri of the Harvard Business School, the Three-Circle Model is a time-tested and oft-referenced tool for understanding the relationships between the owners, business, and family in a family enterprise system.
Watch this short, informational video to help round your understanding of these critical relationships and gain insight that may change your perspective.
Why You Need an Owners Council
It’s a question I often ask multi-generational family business owners. “We have a board,” they respond. Or, almost as frequently, “We have a family assembly.” Rarely do they have an owners council in place. But, all three forums have unique roles, and many multi-generational family-owned businesses need all three.
An Introduction to Building Your Family Business Forums
How do you create a Board of Directors? A Family Assembly? What about an Owners Council or Beneficiary Council? What will they do? Who will be on them? Well run forums are a significant asset when making major decisions and for aligning stakeholders across the enterprise system, but many families don’t fully utilize them. Learn how you might start to put forums to work in your family enterprise in this practical article.
Succession Challenges: Lean Management and Silos
Aligning Shared Purpose and Strategy
When so much of the business world’s discussion space is filled with hot topics such as “unicorns,” “disruptors,” “private equity,” and “exits,” it is easy to see why family business owners may feel out of step with trends in business strategy. These trends come and go (think: matrixed organization, vertical integration, synergy, virtual corporation), but for at least some family business owners, the sense of disconnection is perpetual.
The reason: Shared Purpose drives strategy
A New Approach to Family Business Governance: The Concept of Intention
In family business governance, structures like an owners’ council are of benefit as a family and their business become more complex over time. This begs the question, however, what should the council do?
The concept of Intention offers an innovative approach to answering this question, one that is firmly rooted in the realistic view that governance structures need to be designed in the image of the owning family.
Robert's Rules of Order: How Procedure can Unlock Effectivity
Have you ever been in a meeting that felt aimless or got out of control? Do you wish your board of directors or owners council meetings were more organized? For family businesses looking to formalize their enterprise by developing a clearer process for meetings and decision-making, there is a time-tested architecture: Robert’s Rules of Order.
Swimming Lessons: Teaching Your Children to Stay Afloat in the World of Financial Capital
So often, I am asked, “How do I talk to my kids about…” The money? The business? Their trust? Their opportunities?
I often suggest to clients that they create ways for next-generation family members to “bob in the pool”—to participate in the day-to-day activities of managing the family’s Financial Capital from the earliest days, at a level appropriate to their age and stage.
The swimming metaphor applies throughout life. Parents have an understandable desire to shield kids from the potentially dangerous and dark side of wealth. But too much shielding is like keeping kids from water: we prevent them from learning skills that may save their lives.
How to Build a Board (and Keep it from Running Away with your Business)
A board of directors is often promoted as a critical tool for growing family businesses—and rightly so. A well-constructed board can bring new thinking and perspective, better deliberation, along with expertise and experience that the business needs to grow and achieve its vision of success.
But boards are not a magic elixir, either. when the owners fail to communicate their vision—their direction—for the future of the business, there is a real possibility that the board’s well-intentioned efforts will veer off course, destroying capital the family has worked for years to create.