Blog
Family Meetings – A Critical Lubricant and Glue for Family Sustainability
Families that thrive over multiple generations almost invariably ascribe a large part of their success to their ability to have friendly and constructive family meetings. They frequently contrast the work they’ve put into being able to do this with efforts expended by other families that haven’t fared so well. Rather surprisingly, many business families don’t […]
Read MoreFamily Mediation – Constructive Dispute Resolution for Business Families
Family Mediation is the “go to” process for families when Family Law is used to facilitate matrimonial separation. The process can be anything from a highly formalised, institutional process to flexible private proceedings, tailored to the needs and styles of the parties themselves. In contrast, in the family business world family, mediation is much less […]
Read MoreFamily Governance – The Family’s System of Rules for Good Behaviour
Business families, and families with wealth, eventually need to develop and apply some rules by which to operate, so everybody can get a fix and a reality check on their personal and collective expectations and obligations, as core guidelines to help avoid conflict. Governance is a system of processes that combine philosophy, practical intent, ethics, […]
Read MoreFamily Disputes – Shout Out for a Different Style of Dispute Resolution
Families have been embroiled in disputes since the first cavemen’s sons “borrowed” their flints, and their daughters refused to wear hand-me-down skins. There’s nobody quite like a sibling for knowing how to press your buttons, and as for inter-generational tensions …… Family disputes have myriad causes. When limited to family members and family issues, family […]
Read MoreFamily Councils – Sophisticated Leadership for Family Groups
Every sentient organism needs some sort of control centre to direct and manage its functions and to help ensure its survival. The more complex the organism, the more capable (intelligent) the control centre needs to be. A business family is a complex sentient system, which makes it a very complicated organism. As such, it needs […]
Read MoreFamily Constitutions – Family Rules of Engagement
Family Constitutions support the workings of Family Councils and regulate relationships and interactions between individuals, the family and the business. They capture and define the values, beliefs and objectives of the family, as a family, and contain rules for the conduct of family members in relation to their dealings with the Family Business. A Family […]
Read MoreFamily Conflict Management – to boldly go where Angels fear to tread
All forms of conflict management, and conflict resolution, are challenging, especially when you’re trying to achieve the holistic resolution of all issues (legal, moral, financial and human), rather than just trying to achieve a basic (financial and legal) settlement. The most challenging of all conflicts are those where some of the central issues relate to […]
Read More7 Golden Rules for Avoiding Family Conflict
Worldwide mythology, the Bible, mountains of literature, movies, social media and traditional news all have a strong recurring theme: family conflict. According to insurance surveys, over 50% of all car accidents involving injuries occur within 7kms of home. It makes sense – every journey starts and ends close to home, so you’re there more than […]
Read MoreFamily Business Best Practice and the Best Practice Process Model
One of the primary goals of any business family is to achieve long term peace and prosperity – for the family and the business. This requires excellence, or the application of “best practice”, in both the family and the business. But, there’s a problem: almost everything that makes a family successful conflicts with business success […]
Read MoreFamily Boards – Strategic Leadership, Governance, Supervision and Risk Management
A Company Board is a legally constituted Board of Directors under the Corporations Act 2001. Its role may be anything from: (a) being there because, at law, you have to have one in a company (compliance requirement), to: (b) being there to support and supervise business operations (governance). A Family Board is a term used […]
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