Resources for Family Enterprise Governance & Leadership Across Generations
Succeeding over generations as a family with one or more family businesses, or significant shared wealth, is an incredible challenge that few families are able to manage. Over nearly 40 years, Dennis Jaffe has worked with such families, and developed tools and resources to help them and their advisors meet this test. This web site contains articles, tools and resources and describes programs and consultation that can help a wealthy or business family move between generations, and sustain their personal relationships, build their shared family enterprises, increase their family “capital,” and develop new leadership across generations.
My colleague Jim Grubman and I have created a web site that contains resources for family wealth advisors: Family Wealth Advisor Training
Advising the Enterprising Family
I guide the family to create a safe setting to convene, and move productively toward creating unique understandings, agreements, structures and processes that enable them to sustain themselves across generations. I also help the family organize their stewardship to sustain the family business and other family enterprises, and develop leadership within their next generation, so that the wealth and success that they have already achieved can be sustained by their heirs.
Many families today decide to convene a family meeting, or create a family council, to deal with the challenges related to sustaining their family enterprises across generations. My work with families involves helping family members work together, with the help of their professional advisors, to engage their most difficult issues, and come up with their own solutions. By convening family work sessions, family members can face the tough questions, listen to each other, and crystallize their unique values, principles and guidelines that move them toward agreement and an action plan for their family enterprise, and for their family.
Current Activities
Words of Wisdom for New Family Leaders
Dennis Jaffe was contacted by the Family Office Exchange to provide some advice for a young family member considering taking on a leadership role in the family enterprise.
Words of Wisdom for New Family Leaders
Whitepaper on Family Governance
Jim Grubman and Dennis Jaffe recently worked with Angelo Robles of the Family Office Association on Guiding Governance: Clarifying the Practice of Family Enterprise Governance. In this illuminating Q&A format whitepaper, Jim and Dennis discuss the importance of developing a family governance plan to assist families of wealth with decision-making and long-term planning.
Preparing Yourself for Stewardship in Your Family Enterprise
Dr. Jaffe discusses how members of the next generation can become transformational leaders within their family enterprise. Interview conducted at the FFI meeting, 2011, by Family Business Wiki.
Developing Transformational Leadership in the Family Enterprise
I have been working with the Family Business Network—Pacific Asia region, to develop a year-long intensive set of modules that build a learning community of next generation leaders who develop the personal, family and organizational skills to make a difference in their family enterprises. We have developed four programs that are conducted several times a year.These programs can also be conducted in other places.
Tools and Resources
Best Practices of Multi-Generational Global Families
Just Out. What do families do to succeed in complex business over generations? A report on 192 global families, sponsored by the Family Office Exchange and the Family Business Network, shows that they regularly draw on 15 guiding practices. These practices support the three foundations of nurturing family connection, developing clear collaborative agreements, and developing leadership in the new generation. The report details the degree and importance of these practices, and compares types of families along many dimensions.
The Values Edge
The Values Edge employs Values Cards to help an individual, couple, family or team to define their Personal Values Pyramid, and then work together to create a Family or Team Values Statement.
Each kit includes a deck of values cards, along with colored post-it stickers for transferring values to a Display Card that preserves your Values Pyramid in a visible format that can be worn as a name card. By sharing personal values arranged in colorful pyramids, people in a family or a work team can easily experience their similarities and differences.
Family Enterprise Competency Map
This new 50-question on-line learning tool allows each family member to respond to questions about family relationships and business-financial arrangements to create a shared picture of the family enterprise. It can be used by a family on their own, or with their family advisor, as they create cross-generational governance.
Dennis T.Jaffe PH.D
Developing Responsible Leadership Across Generations in Family Enterprise



Best Practices of Multi-Generational Global Families
