Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: A communication model for family business interventions (Part 1)
This week’s FFI Practitioner begins a two-part examination of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), an evidence-based coaching and therapy model, and its potential application to help family enterprise members find solutions to a variety of challenges. Thanks to this week’s contributor, Brett Coffman for providing this analysis.
“Family Champions: An interview with Joshua Nacht” by Steve Legler
This week’s FFI Practitioner features a conversation between Joshua Nacht and Steve Legler on the topic of “family champions” and Joshua’s recently-released book on the subject. Joshua and Steve discuss how to identify and develop a family champion as well as how practitioners can leverage a family champion in their work with family enterprises. We hope you enjoy listening!
When Science and Law Intersect: Preparing for a new age of wealth transition planning
This week’s FFI Practitioner examines how advances in science can impact multidisciplinary approaches to family business consulting.
The Family Business Consultant and the Family Enterprise Lawyer: Some thoughts on a more productive collaboration
Have the contributions that lawyers can make to family governance discussion been undervalued? So says this week’s contributor, Henry Krasnow, in a thought-provoking piece exploring how family business consultants can collaborate more productively with the company’s attorney.
From Single Business to Portfolio of Businesses: When does the family business become a business family?
Panta rhei. Everything flows and evolves. And family businesses are no exception. From the first-generation founder firm to a real family firm in later generations, and from a single business firm to a complex portfolio business. In some instances, that transition in the family firm – from one to many businesses – happens rather suddenly, in a revolutionary way. Such transformations usually require a few key elements: a natural entrepreneur in the later generations of the family and… a major liquidity event that financially enables the transformation. Marta Widz and
People Are Loyal to the Culture, Not the Strategy
In this week’s FFI Practitioner, Eva Wathén examines the importance of culture within family enterprises and explores some of the differences between the cultures of family-owned and nonfamily-owned enterprises.
Research Applied: FBR Précis for FFI Practitioner
How do the personalities differ between family and nonfamily CEOs and what impact could this difference have on the performance of family businesses? In this week’s edition, Kim Schneider Malek reexamines the popular argument about family and nonfamily CEOs through her précis of “CEO Personality: A Different Perspective on the Nonfamily Versus Family CEO Debate,” an article appearing the March 2019 issue of FBR.
Dreams, Values, and Thoughts on Communications Strategies for Family-Owned Companies
Thank you to Núria Vilanova, this week’s contributor, for continuing FFI Practitioner’s series of articles written in both English and Spanish by members of the FFI IberoAmerican Virtual Study Group. In this week’s edition, Núria explores the themes of her recent book, which addresses the importance of family enterprises implementing a communication strategy that incorporates the family’s values.
Hitting the Family Business Hat Trick: Why investing in another family-owned business makes sense
Thank you to this week's contributor, Janice DiPietro, for making this thought-provoking case for family-to-family investing. The article explores investing strategies for family-owned enterprises that can create three important opportunities for both entities involved.
The Utility of Buy-Sell Agreements for Family Enterprises
This week’s FFI Practitioner focuses on buy-sell agreements and their role in protecting family enterprise from potential future ownership issues. Thanks to Dan Frosh, this week’s author, for providing an examination of the numerous benefits and features of effective buy-sell agreements within the family enterprise context.
An Interview with Dr. Salvatore Tomaselli: The Family-in-Business Model Canvas
This week, FFI Practitioner is pleased to share an interview with Dr. Salvatore Tomaselli, where he explains the development of his Family-in-Business Model Canvas, an adaptation of the Business Model Canvas, that Dr. Tomaselli has applied to his work with family enterprises.
An Interview with David Bork
Welcome to the first issue of the 2019 FFI Practitioner. What better way to look forward than to talk with one of the founders of the family enterprise field? We hope you enjoy this interview with David Bork, a legend in the field and, 50 years later, still a pioneer.
Cases for Clients
Family business cases can serve as powerful tools to integrate into consulting and educational work with clients. Cases provide an engaging way for family enterprise members to recognize issues similar to the ones they face, helping evaluate potential, less emotionally-charged solutions. To further this publication’s mission to provide readers with practical materials that support their work with multi-generational family enterprises, we are pleased to feature a selection of family business cases previously published in FFI Practitioner.
The Roles Past, Present, and Future of the Family Office Executive
This week’s FFI Practitioner edition addresses a topic of importance in the field of family enterprise – the family office. In addition to an article examining the history of the role of a family office executive by Annischka Holmes-Moncur, we are pleased to share four global perspectives on this topic as published earlier in FFI Practitioner.
Research Applied: FBR Précis for FFI Practitioner
How can relationship conflict and socioemotional costs impact a family business owner’s subjective assessment of the firm’s value? In this week’s edition, which is a précis of “Relationship Conflict, Family Name Congruence, and Socioemotional Wealth in Family Firms,” an article appearing in the December issue of FBR, Navneet Bhatnagar explores this question and the relevant implications for practitioners.
When a Three-Legged Relay Race Replaces Passing the Baton
Thanks to Gaia Marchisio for this week’s article which discusses the importance of recognizing and addressing strong beliefs about “universal truths” and misconceptions in the field of family enterprise. In this article, Gaia urges advisers to avoid becoming too narrow-minded and entrenched in an established way of thinking. Instead, she encourages advisers to maintain an outsider’s perspective on conventional family business truths that are often taken for granted.
Understanding What Success Means in Family Firms
Thanks to Chris Casey for sharing his thoughts on what success means in family firms and some of the difficulties he encountered as he worked on his dissertation “Defining success in family firms using configurational fit: A quantitative study of family-owned construction firms” from Capella University.
Contracting in Family Enterprise Advising: A Critical Factor for Success
This week’s FFI Practitioner addresses an often overlooked, but critical phase of the consulting process – contracting. Thank you to Judi Cunningham and Wendy Sage-Hayward for sharing this article that highlights the importance of contracting as an ongoing process, rather than a one-time discussion, and describes two levels of contracting that appear within an engagement.
Celebrate Halloween with these Scary Articles from the Archives
In many parts of the world, October 31 is Halloween, so we couldn’t resist featuring some topics that might seem scary to approach with your clients. In the spirit of Halloween, here are some spooky editions.
Expanding the Three-Circle Model to Include Employees When Evaluating Ownership Succession Alternatives
When family business owners are evaluating non-family ownership succession options, often their advisers may suggest two primary options; selling the business to a “strategic buyer” or a “financial buyer.” However, this week’s edition presents an alternative option – selling the business to the employees, a “friendly buyer,” through an ESOP. Thank you to this week’s contributor, Dan Bayston, for sharing his analysis of ESOPs and the role they can play in a non-family ownership succession plan.