Container or Sponge? The Trusted Advisor Paradox in Long-Term Family Enterprise Relationships
Thank you to Kent Choi, Hamza Nidaazzi, and Guillermo Salazar of the Systems Thinking VSG for this week’s edition, which explores how trusted advisors can recognize when long-term relationships begin to foster dependency.
Mastering the Integration of Emotional Wellbeing and Wealth Creation in the Asian Family Enterprise Journey
What happens when a family’s financial success outpaces its emotional connection?
From Performance to Stewardship: Redesigning the Family Enterprise Board
Most family enterprise boards perform exactly the job they were designed to do.
Reflection on Ghosts in a Family System
In this week’s edition of FFI Practitioner, Jay Hughes, Mary Duke, and Stacy Allred offer the second in their 2026 series of Reflections on Family Flourishing, a companion to their upcoming new book.
Going Public as a Succession Strategy: Lessons for Advisors to Family-Run Businesses
In this issue of FFI Practitioner, FFI Fellow Matthew Erskine examines the December 2024 Family Business Review article, “Why and How Do Family Firms Go Public? A Socioemotional Wealth Perspective of IPO.”
Exiting the Family Business Is as Tricky as Leaving Your Lover
Thank you to FFI Fellow Patricia Annino, member of the 2025 Conference Program Committee, for this article about the many complexities to consider when a client wants to leave a family enterprise.
The Missing Link in Family Business Growth: A Pathway to Generational Success
Thanks to Mette Ballari for today’s FFI Practitioner article, which discusses the missing link in family business growth.
Cousins in Charge: Managing Conflicts and Driving Success in Multi-Generational Family Enterprises
Family enterprise advisors play a crucial role in guiding their clients through an ownership transition from a sibling partnership to a cousin consortium.
Longevity: The Family Home Analogy
Continuing our quarterly series on the FFI conference theme, “Mean Time: Time, Timing, and Timelessness in Family Enterprise,” through the month of July we are pleased to feature issues related to presentations that will be made in London in October.
The Evolution of Ownership Decision-Making in Family Enterprises: From Founder to Next Generation
For family enterprises, passing ownership from the founder to the next generation represents a critical transition that requires careful planning to help the family prepare for increasingly complex decision-making processes.
FFI Practitioner Articles We Love: Donald Neubaum of Family Business Review
This week we are pleased to continue our series of guest-curated FFI Practitioner articles with Donald Neubaum, editor of Family Business Review.
Research Applied: FBR Précis on How Some Family Firms Boost Innovation Prior to Succession
Thank you to Peter Jaskiewicz, James Combs, Torsten Wulf, Thomas Dorsch, and Katrina Barclay, for this précis of their article “Uncertainty around Transgenerational Control: Implications for Innovation Prior to Succession,” which appeared in the December 2023 issue of Family Business Review.
Family Business Leadership 360 Assessments: Case studies on the art of experience and the science of data-driven decision making
Thanks to Doug Gray and FFI Fellow Natalie McVeigh for providing two case studies about how they utilize 360 assessments to provide comprehensive and objective feedback to family business leaders and to evaluate potential next generation successors.
Discussing Prenuptial Agreements with Next-Generation Family Members
In this week’s issue of FFI Practitioner, Matthew Erskine considers the ways that a prenuptial agreement can be an effective tool for family enterprises not only to protect family assets, but to articulate their philosophy and vision for the family’s future.
Research for Clients
As part of its mission, 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.
To Empower Members of the Next Generation, We Need to Answer Their Questions
Thank you to Peter Jaskiewicz, Sabine Rau, and Katrina Barclay for an overview of their recent research into the hopes and desires of next generation members of family enterprises.
Research Applied: FBR Précis for FFI Practitioner
Thank you to this week’s contributor, Kim Schneider Malek, for her précis of “Over My Dead Body”: Wives’ Influence in Family Business Succession.”
Research Applied: FBR Précis for FFI Practitioner
Thank you to this week’s contributor, Navneet Bhatnagar of the FBR Research Applied Board, for sharing his précis of “Community Socioemotional Wealth: Preservation, Succession, and Farming in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania” – an article that appears in the September 2020 issue of FBR.
Disruption-in-Disruptions: Eight actions advisors should bring to their client families
During times of disruption, how can family enterprise advisors help their clients navigate unchartered waters to survive turbulence and prepare for an unpredictable future?
Cases for Clients: 2020
For this week’s edition, we are pleased to continue our series featuring a diverse selection of family business cases previously published in FFI Practitioner.