Board Advisory

Family company boards typically may not include professional company directors, and can benefit from independent, external support particularly in the early stages of board development, to improve strategic thinking and management of risk. Family company directors will also often have management roles in the family business and be required to juggle different responsibilities. In these situations, the directors will benefit from guidance regarding which conversations are relevant (and which “hat” each individual should be wearing) to each of these groups ie:
  • Directors;
  • Shareholders;
  • Management; and
  • Family.

Family Boards can assist a board in the following ways:

  • Provide guidance on topics at a board level;
  • Provide an outside person's perspective, experience and professional views;
  • Provide honest feedback and not afraid to "ask the difficult questions“;
  • Keep focus on high level strategic issues, and not operational issues;
  • Creation and development of board & committee charters;
  • Education by attendance at board and committee meetings;
  • Independent assessment of board and individual director performance;
  • Keep directors mindful of their legal and ethical responsibilities.

Family Governance

Family owners typically wish to achieve and articulate a common understanding amongst the family stakeholders as to the vision of owning the family enterprise, and to create processes as to how things are going to operate in practice in terms of the management of the business and transition of ownership going forward. Family Boards acts as facilitator in order to assist you in reaching an agreement to create a workable framework for the future. 
Building a consensus where there are 'Family' and ‘Business' issues to address is not an easy process and needs to be handled sensitively and empathetically. Family Boards has developed a tried and tested methodology which is tailored to fit the circumstances of your family.  This process involves:

  • Meeting with the family collectively and one-on-one to gain an understanding of views and aspirations of the family
  • Guidance regarding formation and development of governance mechanisms including Family Council
  • Development of critical family documents including Family Charter, Vision and Mission
Utilising this methodology has enabled Family Boards to assist many business families create family governance to enhance decision making for the benefit of the family as a whole.

Succession Planning

World-wide statistics suggest that less than one third of families successfully transition from the first generation to the second, with a similar proportion transferring from second to third generations. This means that a family business could have only a one in ten chance of surviving two generations, under the family’s control.
There are many complex factors which increase the difficulty of achieving a successful transition, including:

  • Founders who are unwilling to give up control;
  • Lack of effective conflict resolution mechanisms; and
  • Insufficient education, mentoring and coaching of the rising generation.
Managing a successful transition involves careful thought and planning. However, despite the best intentions of the parties, many succession plans fail due to an absence of process and structure. Family Boards can assist business families to create collaborative succession plans by utilising a tried and tested  planning framework, involving all key family stakeholders.

Board Advisory

Private company boards often benefit from independent, external support particularly in the early stages of board development. In those early stages, boards can benefit from guidance regarding the right topics to discuss at board meetings.

Family company boards can struggle to fulfil the governance responsibilities incumbent as directors, if those same people also have other roles. In these situations, boards can benefit from guidance regarding which conversations are relevant (and which “hat” each individual should be wearing) to each of these groups ie:

  • Directors;
  • Shareholders;
  • Management;
  • Family

Family company boards typically have directors who fulfil some or all of these separate roles, and problems can arise where boundaries are not recognised and properly managed. Another challenge which many boards face, is maintaining a focus on strategic issues (including risk, stakeholder management, and protecting & improving shareholder value) as opposed to operational matters, which should be the responsibility of the management team (including the CEO) which reports to the Board.

We can assist a board in the following ways:

  • Provide guidance on topics at a board level;
  • Provide an outside person's perspective, experience and professional views;
  • Provide honest feedback and not afraid to "ask the difficult questions“;
  • Keep focus on high level strategic issues, and not operational issues;
  • Education by attendance at board and Committee meetings;
  • Keep Directors mindful of their legal and ethical responsibilities.

In addition, as an advisor who has deep experience with family companies, we can help set and maintain the required boundaries between the family, the Board and the company’s management, to ensure good decision-making is not impinged upon.

Family Governance

In our experience, many family owners wish to achieve and articulate a common understanding amongst the family stakeholders as to the vision of owning the family enterprise, and to create processes as to how things are going to operate in practice in terms of the management of the business and transition of ownership going forward.

Our role at Family Boards is to act as facilitators in order to assist you in reaching an agreement to create a workable framework for the future.  It is important to stress that for our role to be successful we cannot become the agent of any one individual and must maintain a neutral position throughout. In order to achieve this, we would always see our client in these circumstances as the business entity, rather than one or more individual family members.

Building a consensus where there are 'Family' and ‘Business' issues to address is not an easy process and the whole exercise needs to be handled sensitively and methodically.  Accordingly we have developed a tried and tested methodology which we tailor to fit the circumstances of your family.  This process involves:

  • Meeting with the family collectively and one-on-one to gain an understanding of views and aspirations of the family
  • Guidance regarding formation and development of governance mechanisms including Family Council
  • Development of critical family documents including Family Charter, Vision and Mission

Succession Planning

World-wide statistics indicate that less than one third of families successfully transition from the first generation to the second, with a similar proportion transferring from second to third generations. This means that a family business could have only a one in ten chance of surviving two generations, under the family’s control.

There are many complex factors which increase the difficulty in achieving a successful transition, including:

  • Founders who are unwilling to give up control;
  • Lack of effective conflict resolution mechanisms; and
  • Insufficient education, mentoring and coaching of the rising generation.

Managing a successful transition involves careful thought and planning. However, despite the best intentions of the parties, many succession plans fail due to an absence of process and structure. A succession plan also benefits greatly from the involvement of an independent expert who can provide experienced guidance and an objective view of what can be highly personal and emotive issues.

Family Boards will work with the owning family to develop a clear plan of action for all family members.