When you’ve spent the best years of your life building a Family Enterprise that you’ve seen grow beyond your expectations, planning for its future and for the future of the generations that will follow is never optional. While it may seem a straightforward process, when it comes to family and business, ensuring both the security of your family members as well as the successful continuity of your life’s work can be a delicate balance.
At Legacy Line we understand that creating that balance is a complex undertaking, but we are here to help you simplify and streamline the process through comprehensive Family Governance to ensure a long lasting legacy for you and your family.
In an ideal situation, the family at the heart of the business should be the backbone of the company and we aim to create an environment where family members can continue to maintain success for generations to come.
Starting by fully analyzing your family’s dynamics, our team will guide you in setting a vision for your family’s future and thereby laying the groundwork for when new generations and members become involved.
The resulting strategy will establish a sustainable arrangement for your family’s business that includes applying constructive structures for managing succession and conflict. We want to help you create a context where relatives work as a team, respecting guidelines and hierarchy regardless of blood ties.
By defining detailed Family Charters, forming Family Councils, outlining how business decisions are taken within a familial context and appointing Boards of Directors, including the possibility of independent directors, we will help you set the stage to maintain your family-owned business’ commercial success.
At Legacy Line, we focus on Governance, Family Employment, Decision-Making, Communication, Conflict, Succession, Wealth as well as a series of other vital aspects to encourage a durable and lasting structure for your Enterprise, while nurturing a healthy family dynamic.
With over a decade of experience across the Middle East, Legacy Line is one of the only firms to truly understand the language and culture of the region and therefore be able to fully comprehend the intricacies and delicacies of the regional family unit.
Need a better understanding of how Legacy Line can help with your Family Governance? Here are a few examples of how we’ve helped our other clients.
A leading regional industrial group, owned by two key families was at a major turning point. With the two patriarchs of the families at the company’s head, and only a handful of the 2nd generation Family Members involved in the company, the remaining members were feeling left out of the company’s dealings.
As the two families grew, many of the members did not know each other personally. Also the non-active members were unaware of the group’s inner workings and plans. Both of these aspects lead to general animosity. Tensions continued to grow when the non-active members became increasingly aware of the absence of planning for various members of both families.
As a solution, two of the 2nd generation active Family Members were appointed as family and corporate governance champions, to lead the highly complex structural change. They organized an assembly among the Family Members and then created the first council.
At the Family’s first retreat, all the members were able to get to know each other personally, with the opportunity to participate in group activities.
As a result, a family council with sub-committees was created and as a consequence formulated a family employment policy. They jointly agreed on the mission, vision and core values of the company and finalized a Family Charter. With more open routes of communication and prospects available to allow active and non-active members to be involved in the company, a new generation was able to clearly envision their future within the Family Business.
A leading industrial steel company, lead by the patriarch of the family had been operating successfully since the late seventies, partly due to the founder’s entrepreneurial drive and instinctual feel for the market. While his leadership style had been mostly effective, it did have its downfalls, which were being newly noted by his 5 sons who had begun to take over major executive roles in the company.
It became clear that the company needed consolidation and re-evaluation of the original informal corporate governance system, which was not sufficiently equipped to deal with the growing complexities of the business. The aim was also to re-establish the group outside its country of origin, expanding it internationally.
The resulting new Family Charter restructured the Family Members’ roles in the company. While the patriarch’s innate ability to envision the company’s path remained an asset, his sons were able to apply their innovation, analysis and strategic mindset to take the firm to the next level.
Long-term thinking became the Family’s shared vision and their individual skills were being utilized for the best of the company. While the patriarch’s entrepreneurial spirit remained at the core of the company, the focus was no longer just on financial results but also on strategy with an emphasis on risk and analysis.
Two brothers, who jointly owned a leading trading company, decided that in the name of fairness to split their six subsidiary companies equally amongst their children, with each one taking responsibility for one of the companies. The split led to unexpected tension. Primarily it created a lack of unity among the 2nd generation members, with each member more focused on their own company. They were also completely unaware of each other’s strengths, strategies and abilities. Furthermore, the split made resulted in remuneration issues, since ensuring 5 separate companies performed equally simultaneously was near impossible.
In search of a solution, the family created multiple teams, cooperating on different levels on a variety of projects, which were managed by all the companies at the same time. The new model made sure that every member concentrated on the overall success of the group and not just to the company entrusted to them.
A new financial scheme was instated, where each of the brothers was compensated for the efforts equally.
The result meant that the Family started to appreciate each other and learned to work as a team, for the greater good of the Family Business.