Consulting Services

At Strategic Initiatives, we believe there is nothing greater than a successful family business and wealth controlled by a healthy family

We also know that without careful attention, the family businesses can become a place of enormous heartache and stress for family members, in-laws and non-family executives.  There are countless families that have been torn apart through avoidance of family business conflicts or through seeking legal remedies.

 

Philosophy

The challenge of family business leadership and family wealth preservation is to create families and business organizations that inspire us. Ones that not only serve personal ambitions but that also reinforce our integrity, our optimism, our faith in democratic processes and our ability to learn. Will the next generation build, destroy or sell the business? Will the family thrive or fragment? Will the next generation sustain the family’s legacy? What core values should guide this family in the future?

We believe there is nothing greater than a successful family business or family office controlled by a healthy family. We also believe that family businesses often become places of enormous heartache and stress for family members, in-laws and non-family executives.

Few Family Businesses succeed from one generation to the next due to the difficulty of managing the family’s dynamics and changing individual developmental needs. We believe that Family Business Leaders face not only all of the enormous challenges of Business Leadership but also the task of mentoring the next generation. Successful family businesses find ways that utilize the wisdom of the elders and the enthusiasm of the next generation. The goal as we see it, is family, wealth and business growth and continuity. The challenges of meaningful family life and business expansion are enormous and often pull families apart.  Can we build family businesses that we are proud of and that inspire us? Ones that face hard business realities well and the softer needs of family life also.

We believe that the overall goal for family business members should be to develop a family and organizational environment that creates an atmosphere of caring and competence to encourage dialogue, responsibility, innovation and a commitment to developing the vision of the business.  Each family and individual brings their own unique strengths and skills to meeting the monumental tasks of creating success in business, family and individual development over time. The inherent and particular complexities of each family business is viewed as part of their strength and critical to the business and family development.

We always begin our work by listening to the family and key non-family executives as to the special strengths, complexities and difficulties the family is facing. We are proud to share that we were one of the first companies to specialize in this field. We studied with several of the early creators of the field: Leon Danco, Dick Beckhard as well as Kenneth D. Benne and Jack Gibb. We gave some of the first seminars on Family Business in a number of countries including Chile, Peru, Colombia and Thailand. We presented in some of the first professional conferences about Family Business in Europe (FBN) and in the USA. We also were some of the first to present to professional legal and financial associations on working with privately – held businesses effectively.

We have had the privilege to work with many families and businesses of many sizes and have learned from each of them, including a number of market leaders. We bring these lessons as well as lessons from our own family business to our clients. We actively pursue continual learning in our field’s professional associations.

The challenge of family business leadership and family wealth preservation is to create families and business organizations that inspire us.

Typical Interventions

Identifying Personal Strengths and Challenges and Job Role/Performance

– this includes a psycho-vocational assessment to determine each individual’s natural strengths and learning challenges as well as development of performance review systems for family executives.

Leadership, Family and Life Coaching

– individualized coaching to assist Family Business Leaders and All Family Members in realizing their dreams. Special focus is paid to unconscious blocks or sabotages to success.

Emotional Intelligence Skills
– training in understanding and improving each member’s emotional intelligence particularly in regards to family, family business and family wealth arenas. We focus on how to deal intelligently with the difficult emotions that often arise in family business and family wealth sustainability.
Communication Skills
– All healthy family businesses require adequate levels of communication, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution in order to dialogue constructively. It is in this area that the ability to hold family wealth and businesses over generations break down. All successful families must learn how to have effective dialogue about critical issues. We consider this one of the foundation pieces to success for most families.
Development of a Shared Vision, Mission and Statement of Core Values
– This is part of the backbone or the glue in holding families together in the times of generation shifting. It is the base for each generation to determine their common vision, values and purpose in being together.
Family Workshops

We have facilitated over 100 Family Works both generationally and with three generations in the room to improve and deepen Family Unity. These Workshops in such topics as The Purpose of Money, Building Emotionally Intelligent Families, Communication and Conflict Resolution Skills build Family Esprit de Corps and the development of critical skills for identifying and meeting the family’s dreams.

Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer
– we assist the families in determining their goals in wealth transfer and the effects of the estate plans on the family. We work with Estate Planners, Financial Planners and others to make sure the senior generation’s plans in fact accomplish their deepest goals.
Family Council
– we often assist families in creating special forums to dialogue the key issues as well as develop and govern the evolution of the family and its wealth over generations. Family Councils are key to keeping the family dynamics out of the board room.
Family Governance Structures and Policies
– this specifies decision-making both in the family, between shareholders regarding new wheel 22916 500wealth and business. The governance structure specifies who makes what decisions, how, and how shareholder conflicts will be resolved.
Family Protocols and Constitutions
– we assist families in writing the “Rule Book” for working in core business, how to inspire entrepreneurship, how to motivate top performance of family executives and to enter and leave both the management and ownership of a family business. This is the backbone of the Governance Structure and develops all policies in sustaining the family ownership and leadership of the wealth and the business over generations.
Board Development

Many family companies struggle due to the lack of a professional advisory or legal board of directors. We help the family create effective boards.

Succession Planning
– we create plans and processes for effective succession of not only ownership but of executive leadership in the core business. We also look at the transfer of power, wealth and leadership from one generation to the next.
Conflict Resolution and Relationship Enhancement for Family Shareholders
– We are well known for our work in this area – resolving conflicts between family shareholders peacefully so that they can maintain shared ownership, if desired.
Development of High Performance Business Strategy and Culture
– For families with operating core businesses – this is the engine of the wealth. We work with business leaders in enhancing the profit and productivity of the core business. We often work together with top Strategic Planners in this regard.
Performance Review Systems for Family Executives
– we have been leaders in working with Human Resource Professionals in developing appropriate Balance Scorecards and Performance Review Systems for family members working in the company.
Team-Building for Family Executives

We create specialized program that help Family Executives work together more productively as a Team.

Understanding the Family and Business Legacy and
– identifying the glue and strengths that have promoted the success of the new wheel 22916 500family and business and defining the core values upon which future decisions will be made.
Family Office Development
– families often develop a need to create a Family Office or what we sometimes call a “Family Wealth Council”. If the family wishes to preserve its wealth generationally, planning, governance and reporting mechanisms are crucial to long-term success. We work with Financial Planners, Attorneys and Specialists in this regard.
Development of Dashboard and Family Wealth Strategic Plan
–Does the family wish to hold certain assets together over generations? We work with top Family Offices, Financial Planners to assist the family in developing the kids of Family Office that is right for them. We stress that those families who are looking at second and third generation transfers, determine how the wealth be distributed and controlled in terms of the family’s values, vision and mission.