Resource Search

Most family businesses take on the characteristics of their founder or founding family, especially in their formative years. This changes as the company grows and the founder begins to transition ownership and control to future generations. To guide the business succession transition forward on a successful path, there needs to be a family governance plan to establish a framework for joint decision-making among family members based on shared values, a common mission or purpose, and a collective vision for the family’s future.

With the implementation of California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) set to go into effect January 1, 2020, anyone doing businesses with California residents should not only be preparing their digital strategies to comply with the new law, they should also be assessing their risk and reviewing their cyber insurance and adequacy of limits. Why? Now, at $100 minimum per individual incident, a small data breach of 5,000 people equates to $500,000 in damages. Given the minimum statutory damage provision, expect a significant uptick in class action lawsuits following data breaches.

Thomas Calandra, who is in his mid-twenties, is the owner of Calandra Enterprise. Thomas credits his family business’s success to his grandfather’s hard work, determination, and artistry that greatly influences the services provided to their customers and clients at their bakeries, hotels, and restaurants. He and his sister vow not to be like other family-owned businesses that rise in the hands of the elders and crumble in the hands of the grandchildren.

A high-quality board of directors with a range of talents and experience can be a powerful resource for your company. Taking steps to ensure your board is well-designed, well-informed, and properly engaged will reap significant benefits for your company’s shareholders and management team.

In the absence of proper planning, the death of an owner of a closely held business may lead to an estate tax liability that can devastate the business, even with the increased federal estate and gift tax exemption under the 2017 tax legislation.

Intuitively, many business managers recognize that their decision window has been shrinking with each passing year. Information dissemination has become real-time and on-demand. What is required is an analytical approach that enables management to monitor and measure the development of the important strategic drivers and make decisions with confidence. Learn why ad hoc reporting is failing to fill the gap, the changing role of the modern finance leader, and the three new approaches to attaining deeper financial analytical insight.

The role of the tax function is changing. Digitization is shrinking the globe and making everything more connected. Tax regulation and legislative changes are requiring companies to have processes and systems in place in order to comply. Today’s tax professional is charged with advising senior management on the tax implications of strategic business decisions while simultaneously leading initiatives to directly support the organization’s financial objectives and help facilitate growth. Demands on tax professionals have never been higher.

The demand for executive level talent is extremely acute in the technology sector. Consequently, we expect to see larger year-over-year increases that will outpace other industry sectors. The median TDC (total direct compensation) levels will likely become more aligned with the recent excellent economic performance the sector has experienced. To stay ahead of these issues, technology companies and boards need to consider strategic compensation structure, including total rewards package, employment agreements, performance-based equity grants, and succession planning.

True disruption—the kind that marks lasting paradigm shifts in the predominant way things are done—is more than a technology story. It’s a virtuous circle in which technology spawns changes in market and competitive dynamics, and vice versa. To stay on the right side of disruption, businesses need to anticipate the signals and adapt and reinvent themselves before disruption upends them. For the middle market, that means establishing a digital strategy that balances the long-term vision with realistic short-term goals.