This session with the Salgar Family will provide background on the transitions underway in their family and how they used the Family Charter / Constitution to reaffirm the family values, align their goals, and organize their governance process. As part of the move from the first generation to the leadership of Gen 2-3, the family outlined the key components to be included in a charter document, including governance functions and responsibilities and skillsets needed for each role.
Family Charter or Constitution
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Should You Have a Family Constitution?
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Many successful families have put their shared values and goals in writing, often called a family constitution. A constitution can help build family unity and harmony, and the creation process itself provides benefits to the family. Learn the value that families can derive from creating a constitution, the work involved in creating one, and the topics to include in your family constitution.
Family Governance: Oxymoron or Opportunity?
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Family governance need not be an oxymoron. A conscious family governance system can help create an efficient and rewarding means of ensuring the family enterprise’s viability for generations to come. Therefore, any family enterprise that seeks to maintain and grow its wealth—financial, human, social, and intellectual—should consider creating a clear system of governance that is well-designed and flexible-but-durable.
A family constitution—the rule book that defines the vision and principles of a family’s wealth strategy and acts as an operating model—should be as unique as the family itself. The key to developing an appropriate family constitution is not in the ultimate output, but in the collaborative process of developing it. In working together, families often uncover factors which bind them together. However, the process can also elicit confronting discussions about what really matters to individual members.
Although high-net-worth families and individuals recognize the importance of instituting formal family governance structures, doing so presents a complex task. For families who are committed to creating a flexible and durable system of governance, the benefits are lasting.