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The number and scope of women-owned businesses have risen at an unprecedented rate. In an era of new opportunities, this paper profiles eight courageous and resilient women who share their personal stories and the lessons they learned building successful businesses. One theme that emerged from these women’s stories was the critical role of mentorsh...

Taking cues from entrepreneurs, families with great financial wealth would be well-served to create environments where their children can fail and in doing so, learn invaluable lessons about finance and resilience. While the older generations may set the tone by sharing their own stories about overcoming adversity, the rising generations will learn...

A volunteer position with a nonprofit organization can be an incredibly rewarding experience—both for the volunteer and for the organization. But the path to key leadership roles with such organizations can be tricky to navigate. While the process inevitably will vary from organization to organization, there are a few things that can help with maki...

As startup companies in the cloud, internet, and technology industry grow, they must balance resources between innovating products and services and building their businesses. The BPM Business Ownership Transition sat down with the San Francisco Business Times to discuss the nuts and bolts of value creation for startups. Listen in for more about the...

How do family businesses keep their founders' entrepreneurial spirit alive and continue to grow from decade to decade and generation to generation? Learning from an in-depth survey of 2,439 family business leaders across the world, this report uncovers the secret to the regenerative superpower of family businesses, beginning with the founders' entr...

Over the past decade, matriarchs and patriarchs of successful families have been shifting their focus from their children to a broader group of individuals, such as grandchildren, siblings, and nieces. Often, they choose to create family banks, which are typically trusts that are funded to help individuals pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, vent...

Succession is not just about money or property. It means confronting family relationships and taking the time to make sure that the drivers for succession planning connect personal motivations, the purpose of wealth, and specific family issues. It requires an emotional commitment to a process that once started must run its course, including having ...

Choosing the right governance practices in a family business is a critical ingredient for its long-term sustainability. This report—the third in a series of four on family business succession—examines the many layers of family and business governance systems and mechanisms and the ways in which the evolving principles of good governance c...

Growing up in a family business environment often rubs off on the younger generations, with some making the decision to start their own business instead of joining the family enterprise. Toward that end, getting help while staying true to their own ideas requires balance. Here are four steps that will help launch their independent business ven...

Rather than viewing trusts as a mechanism to protect beneficiaries from the dangers of wealth, what if trusts were viewed as vehicles to “ignite a fire” within the next generation? Imagine a trust structure that is designed to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurialism by making beneficiaries active participants rather than passive recipients of thei...

While entrepreneurs are intently focused on building their businesses, they may have less time to spend on building, sustaining, and distributing their wealth. Given the importance of early wealth planning and its long-term impact, this guidebook provides insights and tools at each stage of the entrepreneur’s journey to help them move forward ...

While there’s been progress in the number of women in senior positions, this year's research shows it is concerningly slow. At the current rate, it will take another 132 years to close the global gender gap. There’s a need for urgency and to be intentional in the ‘push for parity.’ In this report, we show the benefits and progress of women in senio...

One of the most discussed topics is to what degree entrepreneurial and vital drive and “hunger” are determined by nature or by nurture. That is, can drive and hunger be taught and developed with the proper education, incentives, influences, or conditions? With a closer look and analysis based on existing literature on the topic and interviews with ...

Disagreements and discord can arise when it comes to your family vacation home, a unique asset that symbolizes important memories and family connections. For this reason, you should specifically address the vacation home in your estate plan to avoid hard feelings and even disputes. With thoughtful and proactive planning, a family can avoid many of ...

The data from this year’s research by Grant Thornton indicates that the progress achieved so far on women in senior management is fragile. There has been a dramatic decrease in the percentage of female CEOs, including a 15pp drop in CEOs who are women in the United States, a 14pp drop in China, and an 8pp drop in the UK between 2023 and 2024. Witho...