Our
Philosophy
The challenge of family business leadership is to
create families and business organizations that
inspire us. Ones that not only serve personal
ambitions but that also reinforce our integrity, our
optimism, our faith in democratic processes and our
ability to learn. Will the next generation build,
destroy or sell the business? Will the family thrive
or fragment? Will the next generation sustain the
family's legacy?
We believe there is nothing greater then a successful
family business controlled by a healthy family. We
also believe that family businesses often become
places of enormous heartache and stress for family
members, in-laws and non-family executives.
Few
Family Businesses succeed from one generation to the
next due to the difficulty of managing the family's
dynamics and changing individual developmental needs.
We believe that Family Business Leaders face not only
all of the enormous challenges of Business Leadership
but also the task of mentoring the next generation.
Successful family businesses find ways that utilize
the wisdom of the elders and the enthusiasm of the
next generation. The goal as we see it, is family and
business growth and continuity. The challenges of
meaningful family life and business expansion are
enormous and often pull families apart. Can we
build family businesses that we are proud of and that
inspire us? Ones that face hard business realities and
the softer needs of family life.
|
|
|
We believe that the overall goal for
family business members should be to develop a family and
organizational environment that creates
an atmosphere of caring and competence to encourage dialogue,
responsibility, innovation and a commitment to developing the
vision of the business.
Each family and individual brings their own unique strengths
and skills to meeting the monumental tasks of creating success
in business, family and individual development over time. The
inherent and particular complexities of each family business
is viewed as part of their strength and critical to the
business and family development.
We always begin our work by listening to the family and key
non-family executives as to the special strengths,
complexities and difficulties the family is facing. We are
proud to share that we were one of the first companies to
specialize in this field. We studied with several of the early
creators of the field: Leon Danco, Dick Beckhard as well as
Kenneth D. Benne and Jack Gibb. We gave some of the first
seminars on Family Business in a number of countries including
Chile, Peru, Colombia and Thailand. We presented in some of
the first professional conferences about Family Business in
Europe (FBN) and in the USA. We also were some of the first to
present to professional legal and financial associations on
working with privately - held businesses effectively.
We have had the privilege to work with many families and
businesses of many sizes and have learned from each of them,
including a number of market leaders. We bring these lessons
as well as lessons from our own family business to our
clients. We actively pursue continual learning in our field's
professional associations.
|
|