{"id":1410,"date":"2024-09-18T08:05:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T06:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/?p=1410"},"modified":"2024-11-16T16:36:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T15:36:22","slug":"leaving-a-legacy-the-importance-of-instilling-family-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/2024\/leaving-a-legacy-the-importance-of-instilling-family-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving a legacy: the importance of instilling shared values"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ultimate goal of any family business is to <strong>create a legacy for future generation<\/strong>. To achieve this, family firms strive to ensure that the wealth they generate (or inherit) <strong>grows on a solid financial foundation<\/strong> for the benefit of their descendants.<\/p>\n<p>But there&#8217;s more to it than that. Even more important is their ability to <strong>convey the quintessential values<\/strong> that define them as a family in business to the next generation.<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, families that aspire to sustain their businesses across generations must first <strong>reinforce their capital<\/strong>. Family offices have been steadily gaining traction to help address this need.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, those that neglect the non-financial aspects of the family\u2019s capital risk <strong>jeopardizing the longevity<\/strong> of a multi-generational business.<\/p>\n<p>In wealth management, the focus is placed squarely on the <strong>financial aspect<\/strong>, with a multitude of advisors offering their services in this realm. However, the concept of wealth is far more nuanced and complex.<\/p>\n<p>The origins of the word &#8220;wealth&#8221; can be traced to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vocabulary.com\/dictionary\/wealthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Old English word <em>wela<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, defined as<strong> \u201chappiness and prosperity in abundance.\u201d<\/strong> In <em>wela<\/em>, we find a much deeper perspective. Centuries later, Henry David Thoreau expanded on this, defining wealth as &#8220;the ability to fully experience life.&#8221; And therein lies the crux of the matter.<\/p>\n<p>James E. Hughes, author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Family-Wealth-Keeping-Intellectual-Financial-Generations\/dp\/157660151X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family<\/em><\/a>, seems to concur with this broader angle, highlighting these <strong>seven classic mistakes<\/strong> as detriments to the preservation of family wealth:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Overemphasizing financial capital while neglecting human and intellectual capital.<\/li>\n<li>Viewing wealth preservation as static rather than dynamic.<\/li>\n<li>Measuring time in years or decades as opposed to generations.<\/li>\n<li>Failing to recognize\u2013and by extension, failing to manage\u2013both internal and external threats.<\/li>\n<li>Thinking in quantitative rather than qualitative terms.<\/li>\n<li>Lacking awareness of the family history or failing to articulate it.<\/li>\n<li>Believing that wealth preservation is easy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Since this is my first blog post of the academic year, I\u2019ll refrain from diving into too much detail today. However, I encourage you to <strong>reflect on James E. Hughes\u2019 seven points<\/strong> and <strong>consider these questions<\/strong> in the context of your own family business:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Is our purpose as a business family clearly defined?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Have we formalized these values into a written document that can guide the development of a family strategic plan?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Do we have the right governance structures in place to implement this plan?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Are our interpersonal relationships strong enough to support its execution?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I could add several more questions to this list, but this is a good starting point. As I mentioned, I want to avoid giving you too much homework on the first day.<\/p>\n<p>Wishing you a productive \u201cback to school\u201d season!<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Homepage image<\/em><em>:<\/em><em> <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@outoforbit?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Gustav Gullstrand<\/a> <\/em><em>\u00b7 <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/green-pine-trees-d6kSvT2xZQo?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ultimate goal of any family business is to create a legacy for future generation. To achieve this, family firms strive to ensure that the wealth they generate (or inherit) grows on a solid financial foundation for the benefit of their descendants. But there&#8217;s more to it than that. Even more important is their ability [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":1412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,981],"tags":[117494,117532,117526],"class_list":["post-1410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-leadership","tag-legacy","tag-shared-values","tag-socioemotional-wealth","megacategoria-mc-family-business"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1429,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410\/revisions\/1429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/family-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}