CEO succession to a non-family executive is particularly challenging to a CEO who is a family member. For executive recruiters, “Will the CEO really let go?” is always a concern expressed by those around the incumbent. This week’s edition by Bruce Walton discusses success factors that help consultants prepare their clients to let go as part of a successful leadership transition.

What organizational configurations lead to the highest levels of innovation in family firms? In this week’s edition, which is a précis of “A Configurational Approach to Family Firm Innovation,” an article appearing in the June 2019 issue of FBR, Navneet Bhatnagar explores this question and its implications for family enterprise advisors.

How can family advisors help their clients when they are so enmeshed in conflict that they seem to have erected impenetrable barriers? According to this week’s contributors, Mitzi Perdue and Amy Castoro, advisors can utilize three communication techniques to break down these barriers and address the underlying causes of the conflict. Mitzi and Amy have illustrated these techniques with an instructive case study that can be shared with clients.

This week’s FFI Practitioner concludes a two-part examination of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), by Brett Coffman. In this week’s edition, Brett addresses the need to look for change in clients and provides a mnemonic device to help remind practitioners about the various techniques associated with SFBT.

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.

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!

This week’s FFI Practitioner examines how advances in science can impact multidisciplinary approaches to family business consulting and encourages professionals need to keep abreast of ongoing scientific developments as they relate to the family enterprise field Thanks to Mindy Rosenthal of the 2019-2020 FFI NYC Regional Planning Committee for contributing this article on advances in neuroscience and their impact on wealth planning.

We hope you’ve been enjoying the articles published in FFI Practitioner so far this year. This week, we’re pleased to share the most popular editions from the first quarter of 2019!

FFI strives to advance the field of family enterprise through applied research, providing practitioners with practical applications for research conducted by academics from around the world. An example is the periodic précis written by members of the FBR Applied Research Board. Based on recent articles published in FBR, these précis summarize an article and identify implications and applications for advisers to integrate into their work with families. This week, FFI Practitioner is pleased to highlight selected FBR précis on a variety of family enterprise topics.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Every Wednesday authors for FFI Practitioner share insights on the field of family enterprise advising and consulting from a variety of vantage points. Today we’d like to invite you to Write for FFI Practitioner! And… as inspiration, we point you toward examples of articles from contributors across the globe and some topics that could use more contributors.

Thanks to Mitzi Perdue for this case study discussing some of the perils involved in misunderstanding core concepts underlying the frequently invoked “chain of command.” It is an instructive article for advisors and a case that could be shared with clients.

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.

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.

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.

What can family enterprises learn from a book titled, Who Moved My Cheese? Thanks to this week’s contributor, Ashvini Chopra, for sharing a case study that applies the book’s lessons about change and adaptability to a recent scenario Ashvini encountered with one of his family business clients.