This article is about fostering better family understanding through effective communication about critical issues that impact the sustainability of the family and the enterprise. In the past five years, it has become more difficult to keep stakeholders aligned around shared goals and capital allocations, given the disruptive challenges facing all owners of private capital. Establishing a quarterly discussion will help the family better understand the complexity of decisions being made and will help the family process the ‘pros and cons’ that must be considered.
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We will share three inspiring stories about family evolution, impact and engagement in the family’s collective enterprise. Each of these families has planned for key transitions and managed unexpected challenges with innovative solutions that bring insights for all of us.
FOX founder Sara Hamilton, together with Margaret Vaughan Cox, will describe what a complex enterprise family looks like and share a new framework, detailed in their recently published book, Build an Enterprise Family to Last: Proven Strategies to Thrive Across Generations, that distinguishes the Family Journey, the Enterprise Journey, and the Personal Journey. Their methodology and milestones allow each family to explore where they are today, where they want to go in the future, and how they plan to get there.
This breakout session will expand on the methods introduced earlier, sharing specific tools and techniques that can help families get ‘unstuck’ and move their enterprises forward. The authors of Build an Enterprise Family to Last: Proven Strategies to Thrive Across Generations will highlight milestones that have helped families explain complex topics and collaboratively build future plans. Insights from the Enterprise Family workshop will be discussed, and attendees will receive copies of the new guidebook containing 48 milestones with visual descriptions
The future will bring transformative changes to families, their enterprises, family offices, and wealth advisors. Transformation will be structural, philosophical and cultural, resulting in a paradigm shift that better balances managing the family’s financial capital and nurturing its other capitals—especially the well-being of its members.
Join the Tsotsorkov family’s journey over the decades, from its entrepreneurial roots going back 250 years to its modern-day enterprise. Gen 2 family leader, Dimitar Tsotsorkov, shares the story of, and learnings from, the family’s recent efforts to capture and codify the unique values that have shaped the enterprise family and its ecosystem throughout the centuries.
At its core, a mission statement serves as a compass, continually steering an organization or business toward their goals. For the families who undertake the process of creating a mission statement, it provides a similar and essential navigational tool. To be successful, however, the mission statement must resonate and mean something to everyone in the family. It should ideally look inward to identify each family member’s personal values.
The past year challenged families to react to adverse trends to protect their enterprise and build capabilities to achieve their vision. The journey from uncertainty to impact requires an elevated enterprise mindset and determination to persevere throughout the four-stage evolution to position the family enterprise for long-term success and positive community impact.
From a global crisis triggering a family’s restructuring, to an entrepreneur-turned-global-investor’s commitment to change the world, six case studies demonstrate how some international champion enterprise families are assessing their threats and opportunities, reinventing themselves, and delivering the full potential of family capital to realize their desired vision and positively impact the world.
Once the family enterprise is clear on which values it aims to preserve, the next step is to integrate and execute those values in an intentional way. Enter: The B Corps. Certified B Corporations are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Join this session to learn how one family office achieved B Corps status, why it matters, and how yours can too. Philippe Mauchard, Venture Partner and Former Chief Investment Officer, SPDG Ventures Peter Moustakerski, CEO, FOX