June 25, 2020

A survey of enterprising families’ governance practices

Thank you to Family Business Magazine for this insightful report!!

Authored by By Dennis T. Jaffe, Peter Begalla and Jane Flanagan

**The following is an excerpt and is not authored by Crimson Rook

 

Research over the past three decades suggests that family assemblies, family councils and other governance structures help a business-owning family sustain their enterprise over multiple generations. As families become aware of the value of governance activities, they wonder how other families set up their assemblies and councils, how much they spend on governance and how the various governing bodies operate.

After a request at a recent Transitions conference, we decided to gather concrete information on how enterprising families conduct family governance. Subscribers to Family Business Magazine’s newsletter were asked to complete an online survey in December 2019 and January 2020. We received 320 responses.

Of the total who completed the survey, 35% (113) report that their families have a family council, the basic unit of family governance. (See sidebar for a definition of terms used in this report.) Their responses show substantial engagement in family and business governance. Most of the data in this report are from this subset of 113 families.
Your family can use this information as a benchmark to assess your own practices, as well as to consider pathways to develop or expand the nature and extent of your family governance.

READ MORE

 

Family Owned Business , , , ,
About RobinAnn Bienemann
I come across as classy, sassy and pretty in pink even as the CEO and Founder of Crimson Rook, LLC. For 30 years I served in executive positions in manufacturing and technical fields and did it wearing 4” heals with a flowered briefcase! Here’s what I do: I specialize in helping businesses become scalable, sustainable and transferable. I know what distinguishes successful companies from those that struggle – it’s my gift of sorts. My accomplishments include being one of the first women to run manufacturing operations in Silicon Valley, serving as Senior Vice-President at Blue Arc, a $60M computer storage company in San Jose, CA. I serve as the Entrepreneur in Residence for the University of Connecticut’s Schools of Business and Engineering and as a board member of a regional non-profit supporting sustainable agriculture and economic development. As CEO of Crimson Rook, I have been a strategic advisor to more than forty companies over the years and have now taken that talent and expertise to the Mastermind & Peer Group world with the launch of the Family Business Cooperative - a year long program designed for Academia - helping them launch Family Business Programs. I am a creative and effective meddler I’ve done this in the affairs of business and academia and have created alliances in both public and private companies and government that span domestic and international borders. I am a bicoastal grandparent with the affectionate title of Grammie Bubbles. My skills beyond business include chemistry in the creative spirits department and singlehandedly providing the color pink its most deserved recognition. I have received my BA from Springfield College and Masters of Science from MIT’s Sloan School of Management as a Sloan Fellow. The title of my Master’s thesis was “Entreprenurial Redeployment in Large Organizations.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Text Widget
Aliquam erat volutpat. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer sit amet lacinia turpis. Nunc euismod lacus sit amet purus euismod placerat? Integer gravida imperdiet tincidunt. Vivamus convallis dolor ultricies tellus consequat, in tempor tortor facilisis! Etiam et enim magna.