In family business, independence matters. It brings more than just objectivity and governance, it brings a view that is not shaped by decades of family history, old conversations, unspoken expectations or the way things have always been done. An independent director is not simply there to sit outside the family tree, read the papers and offer an objective perspective. If that is all they do, the family may have ticked off a governance nicety but missed a much greater opportun

When people talk about education in family business, it is often framed around one question. How do we prepare the rising generation? Sure, it’s an important question, but also not the full picture. Family business education is not only about teaching younger family members how the business works, how to read the financials or what governance means. It is also about helping the current generation understand how the next generation sees the world, communicates, uses tools (lik

In family enterprises and family offices, many of the most important shifts do not come from new strategies, but from being more deliberate about how decisions are made and who is involved in making them. Strong outcomes follow when families commit to turning insight into well considered action, supported by clear governance, rather than relying on what has always been done. Across family enterprises and family offices, the challenges are rarely just financial or structural.

Family enterprises spend so much time building structure around their wealth that they often miss a key element that shapes their long-term success. Culture. Not the glossy version that sits in a mission statement, but the lived culture that shows up in how people behave, what they value, what they avoid and what they believe the future should look like. In most family offices, cultural intelligence is an underdeveloped skill. Teams know how to read balance sheets and manage

When a family sells the business that has been part of its story for generations, it’s never just a commercial decision. It’s a shift in identity. The business has often been the heartbeat of the family where conversations happened, relationships formed and purpose was lived out in a shared way. Once that daily rhythm changes, the family suddenly has to find new ways to stay connected. I often work with families who are already in that transition, but also with those who are

People talk about women bringing something different to leadership like it is a new discovery. It is not new. It has just gone unnoticed because it does not always come packaged as dominance or volume. Feminine strategic intelligence has been sitting in family enterprises, private companies and leadership teams for years. The only difference now is that boards and conference organisers are starting to realise they actually need it. This kind of intelligence is not about being

There is a moment many women in business do not see coming. It is not when the invoices are steady or the title sounds impressive or the...

Family businesses live with a constant tension; they want to be known and trusted, but they also need to protect their privacy. Too much...

In my last article I wrote about trust as a powerful force in business. Trust is one (super important) part of the picture, a network of...