Longevity in the Family Business Context: Implications for Leadership and Succession
Read “Longevity in the Family Business Context: Implications for Leadership and Succession” by FFI President, Judy Green and Patricia Annino as recently published in Tharawat Magazine
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.
FFI Practitioner: Most Popular Articles of 2018
As 2018 is winding down, we’re taking a look back at “the year that was” for FFI Practitioner. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading and listening to the 50 editions by more than 65 authors published this year. This week, we’re pleased to share the 10 most popular editions from 2018!
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.
Reflections on the Soul of Family Business
Thank you to this week’s contributor, Tom Hubler, for reflecting on his more than thirty-five years as a family business consultant and sharing some valuable insights he’s gained during that time. We hope you enjoy reading about Tom’s experience and learning about what he refers to as the “soul” of family businesses.
When the Chairman is Wrong
As an adviser, what can you do when the owner/CEO who hires you is wrong? According to Bruce Walton in this week’s edition, an objective board of directors can serve as a valuable ally to confront a misguided CEO and to get the company moving in the right direction. To illustrate his point, Bruce shares some anecdotes of how a board can help in these tricky situations.
Deviance in the Family Business: An interview with Kim Eddleston and Roland Kidwell
For this week’s edition, we are excited to share an interview between Russ Haworth, host of the Family Business Podcast, and Kim Eddleston and Roland Kidwell about their presentation at the upcoming FFI Global Conference. Their presentation is titled “The Diversity of Deviance: How breaking the rules can hurt (and help) families and family firms,” which will address the different types and outcomes of deviance as well as covering how to use deviance in the family and family firm to improve performance.
Conversation-Starting Articles to Share with your Clients
One of the primary goals of FFI Practitioner is to provide readers with thought-provoking and practical articles to improve the services they offer to their family enterprise clients and the field in general. To further this mission, this week, we are pleased to feature a selection of articles addressing common topics, across disciplines, that can be used as examples or conversation starters with clients.
Research Applied: FBR Précis for FFI Practitioner
In a rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive environment, is the need for an Entrepreneurial Orientation critical to ensuring the long-term survival of family firms? In this week’s edition, which is a précis of “Entrepreneurial Orientation and the Family Firm: Mapping the Field and Tracing a Path for Future Research,” an article appearing in the September issue of FBR, Maya Prabhu explores this question and the important implications of this research on the field.
For Love and Money: Married leaders of family firms
Do married couples make the most effective leaders of family firms? According to research conducted by this week’s contributor, Isabelle Le Breton-Miller of HEC Montréal, firms owned and run by married couples tend to outperform their competition. We hope you enjoy this edition that examines the potential advantages that married copreneurs can bring to a family enterprise.
Managing Wealth as a Business: A Family Office – to be or not to be?
When should a family begin to think about forming a family office and what factors should they consider when making this decision? Thank you to Iñigo Susaeta, 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.
Mid-Autumn Festival: Lessons for family businesses
We hope you’ve been enjoying the month-long FFI Practitioner series dedicated to the theme of “Reflections,” which concludes this week with a piece by Paul Chung and Chin Chin Koh. In this article, the contributors reflect on the ancient Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and explore its parallels to family enterprise.
Reflections on the Study of 100-Year Family Enterprises: An interview with Dennis Jaffe
The month-long FFI Practitioner series dedicated to the theme of “Reflections” continues this week with a very special interview with Dennis Jaffe, author of the recent working paper titled, “Resilience of 100-Year Family Enterprises: How Opportunistic Innovation, Business Discipline, and a Culture of Stewardship Guide the Journey Across Generations.” In this interview, hosted by Russ Haworth, Dennis reflects on some of the key takeaways from his study of nearly one hundred successful family enterprises.