Family enterprise governance defines how decisions are made, roles are clarified, and accountability is sustained across generations. These articles explore governance structures, boards, and frameworks that support alignment and long-term continuity.
How can private boards apply the same analytical rigor to people strategy as they do to succession planning and capital allocation?
Many business families have a family constitution – but far fewer have one that truly guides behavior, and even fewer have one that strengthens alignment over time.
Shareholder agreements are among the most consequential governance tools in a family enterprise. However, few families have a shareholder agreement that truly supports them in becoming the ownership group they aspire to be.
Your "owners' strategy" should consider that in the future, the family firm will likely have many more owners. That’s why you might want to take a broader focus when you develop it.
Family businesses should consider a social media policy as a relatively “low-hanging fruit” to introduce the next generation to governance work.
Once established, family governance mechanisms are rarely revisited or evaluated. The result is that family governance gets stuck focusing on the past and present - instead of supporting your family on its journey to where it wants to be.
How do you keep a shareholder group of dozens, even hundreds of shareholders united and aligned? Family councils can counteract the growing family’s tendencies to grow apart - but they must evolve alongside the family’s changing needs, wants, and objectives.
Should you select family members for governance roles based on family branch or generation, their qualifications, or based on how well-respected they are within the family? Every choice comes with benefits and disadvantages.
Can you quantify your board’s contribution to the performance of your family business? What about its effect on the family, in terms of settling disputes, creating policies, and providing transparency, just to name a few?
The German Merck family has succeeded where many business families have failed: Keeping a group of over 300 family members unified, aligned and committed over the course of 350 years.
Families often struggle with developing family (governance) policies that not only work for the long term, but that also adequately reflect and reinforce the family’s values and objectives. Shareholder agreements are a case in point.
What do high-functioning family business boards do well? Read our learnings from years of working with and on family business boards.
