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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...

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...

To effectively serve as a trustee, it's crucial to understand your fiduciary duties. Even trustees with the best of intentions can create liability for themselves by being unprepared for the job or by not fully understanding their obligations. Learn more about some of the common mistakes family trustees make that can lead to lawsuits and other...

Serving as a trustee for your family can be a valuable experience for you, while also providing an important service to your family. But before you accept the position, make sure that you understand the role you will play for the family and are willing to accept the responsibilities and liability that come with it.

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...

Ultimately, how well your wealth transfer plan fulfills your legacy and meets the needs of the next—and future—generations depends on whom you name as your trustee(s). This makes your trustee selection one of the most critical aspects of an already complex wealth planning process. To help navigate this selection process, work with a framework built...

Conventional investing is all about diversification and maximizing returns. While both of these are still fundamental, some investors also want to use their economic influence to drive meaningful change. As these investors make financial decisions informed by both heart and mind, traditional barriers between making money and making a difference are...

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...

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...

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...

When done well, a trustee’s service can have a profoundly positive impact on a family; when done poorly, a trustee’s service can create or exacerbate fissures within a family, dissipate family wealth, create personal liability for the trustee, and create a public spectacle that sullies the family’s good name and reputation. For key employees in fam...

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 ...

The death of a loved one is a difficult and emotional time for a family. There is often additional stress if you are appointed as the executor of the will and trustee of your family’s trusts, especially if the deceased had been the sole manager of substantial family assets and wealth. For an untrained person, it can be a daunting role. For these re...

Strategy is often thought of as an art form—an unstructured, intuitive exercise propelled by inspiration and brilliance. However, just like finance, operations, or marketing, strategy is a functional discipline with tools, frameworks, processes, best practices, and metrics. This checklist is end-to-end process for developing and executing a comp...

By exploring the essence of legacy and its impact on business performance, this report brings together the detailed analysis, academic insights, and the firsthand experiences of family business CEOS to contribute to a deeper understanding of the importance of balancing tradition and innovation for long-term success in family businesses. From this r...