Session-1 Synopsis

International family business experts Mr. Dennis Jaffe and Mr. Peter Leach from UK along with Mr. Prasad Kumar from India anchored the talks during the first session, “The Wisdom of 100-year Family Enterprise” of the series, held on July 18. The panelists talked about differences between the founder generation, the second generation and the third generation members of family businesses. Cultural issues, familiness, role of matriarchy in maintaining culture, unavoidable splitting of families and coping with different types of crisis was discussed seamlessly.

Answering a series of questions from Mr. Peter Leach and Mr. Prasad Kumar, Mr. Jaffe shared insights on truly generative family business that smartly manage longevity through intergenerational transitions. The researcher and author pointed out that resilient business families come from all kinds of cultures - from Individualistic, patriarchal ‘honour’ cultures and harmony cultures.

About the Speaker

Dennis Jaffe: For over 40 years, Denis Jaffe has been one of the leading architects of the field of family enterprise consulting. He is a clinical psychologist and an organizational consultant and helps multi-generational families to develop governance practices that build the capability of next generation leadership. He is also the author and researcher of the book – “Borrowed from your grandchildren: The evolution of 100-year family enterprises”.

About the Moderators

Peter Leach: Mr. Peter Leach is a family business expert who focuses on working with multi-generational family businesses on governance issues. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of family business thinking and has been a leader in this field for over 30 years.

Prasad Kumar: Mr. Prasad Kumar is a leading Family Business Advisor focusing on small and emerging family business in India and abroad. He also specializes in Strategic Facilitation and Organization Development. Over four and a half decades, he has worked in senior roles incorporates and with many leading companies in their growth and transformation.

Session-2 Synopsis

International family business experts Ms. Rachel Atkins and Mr. David Imison along with Mr. Tatwamasi Dixit anchored the talks during the second session, “Reputation – You can’t manage what you don’t know” of the series, held on July 25.

The 60-minute of highly interactive session was addressed by all the three experts where they shared insights from their research and practice on the importance of reputation management, the risks and potential of the online space, including social media to bring perspectives to think about and incorporate in our own lives. The panelists talked about the importance of fundamental rights to reputation and privacy. While the law protects the privacy of a family, it is up to the individual to manage exposure on the virtual platforms.

Talking on the various areas of reputation management, the experts highlighted the fact that it is best to be ready and prepared with knowledge about the consequences of various online activities. Managing personal profiles properly, working with privacy features of social media settings and other such precautionary measures canl prevent areputation crisis. The experts also touched upon the idea of educating the younger generation of the business families on this subject. It is important for young people to understand that their information is private and should be kept safe, as for every legitimate proponent of transparency, there is a hacker out there ready to use them to serve their purpose.

About the Speaker

Rachel Atkins: Rachel Atkins is a specialist in safeguarding the reputations of prominent individuals and businesses. She couples her experience in media law with a detailed knowledge of reputation threats that emanate from non-media sources.

David Imison: David Imison is a reputation and privacy risk advisor whose role is to help clients navigate the risks stemming from disputes, controversies and crisis. He is a certified member of the institute of Risk Managers and a certified Information Security Systems Professionals.

About the Moderators

Sri Tatwamasi Dixit: Sri Tatwamasi Dixit is a well-known family business advisor and spiritual leader who works with family businesses across the world. He is internationally recognized for his knowledge and application of the wisdom of the Vedas. Sri Dixit draws on his extensive experience in commercial and management practices to help family businesses work on balancing and blending family and business priorities.

Session-3 Synopsis

The third session of the series, held on August 1 was deftly anchored by Mr. Prasad Kumar with his incisive questions about the contributions of Dr. Ross Ellenhorn in understanding how people change, from a well-grounded understanding of the Indian and global mindsets. Based on Ross Ellenhorn’s recently published book of the same title – “How We Change (And 10 reasons why we don’t)”, the session gets to the core of our insecurities and fears about ourselves, with humor and kindness. It also helps us understand how to turn our insecurities and fears into agents of change.

The author points out that ‘Hope’ and ‘Faith’ are the two levers we have to enable change. He states “two things happen when we hope – agency thinking and faith in themselves and the world around them”. These two are central to all collaboration – “hope is the kernel of humanity – it is what makes us human.” For family businesses, the author suggests that there must be dialogue between the older and younger generations. The younger generation today have faith in themselves and find creative ways of doing things which is ‘hope’ and ‘agency thinking’ – they live in times where there is little hope – but they are a very hopeful group. It is important for the older generation to recognise the negative value of fear and dialogue with the ones that have fear of hope by assuring them that they understand their need to remain safe and help them to think about why change may help them advance.

About the Speaker

Ross Ellenhorn: Dr. Ross Ellenhorn is a trained sociologist, psychotherapist and social worker. He has spent the last two decades across U.S. and Europe, helping individuals suffering psychiatric symptoms find the psychological and social means for remaining outside institutional settings. Drawing on decades of clinical experience and his own scientific research, Dr. Ellenhorn has authored two books on human behavior namely, Parasuicidality and Paradox: Breaking Through the Medical Model (published by Springer Publishing) and How We Change (published by Harper Collins).

About the Moderators

Prasad Kumar: Mr. Prasad Kumar is a leading Family Business Advisor focusing on small and emerging family business in India and abroad. He also specializes in Strategic Facilitation and Organization Development. Over four and a half decades, he has worked in senior roles incorporates and with many leading companies in their growth and transformation.

Session-4 Synopsis

The fourth session of the series held on August 8, featured international family business expert, Dr. Ivan Lansberg along with Mr. Peter Leach and Mr. Tatwamasi Dixit. Considering several factors such as the size and nature of business, business inclination and motivation of younger generation as well as the expectations of senior generations, the speakers discussed ideal mantras for the family businesses to thrive and transition through generations.

On the topic of identifying entrepreneurs from the next generation for succession, the speakers pointed out that not every generation may have entrepreneurial talent, but it is possible to balance talents of multiple siblings who can contribute to the business.

While talking about the leadership continuity in family business, the speakers highlighted the fact that founding family has the need of developing a governing platform. The governance function will not only provide direction, accountability and value system but will also keep the business and family together. The panel also pointed out when considering continuity, it is important to have a vision of what lies in future. Articulating the aspirations as an enterprise, as owners and as family is important for clarity.

On the topic of Parenting and Nurturing the next generation the expert speaker said, "Some parents are sculptors - they have an idea of who the child has to become and hope to chisel away to make then in that image. But the more you are a sculptor – the more resistance you will get from the sculpture. It is better is to be a gardener - let the children discover if they are an apple tree or orange tree and be the best tree they can be. It is better to share the platform with them and provide them roles where they can contribute positively." Further, as an advice to senior family members, the expert speaker pointed out that they must have humility and lower the dependency of the company on themselves. He said, "That's the greatest test of greatness - Not to reinforce dependency but to lower it".

About the Speaker

Dr. Ivan Lansberg: He is an organizational psychologist who grew up in an entrepreneurial family in Venezuela. He has consulted with complex family businesses in the USA, Canada, Asia, Europe and Latin America, and has made significant contributions to the understanding of family business governance and succession.

About the Moderators

Peter Leach: Mr. Peter Leach is a family business expert who focuses on working with multi-generational family businesses on governance issues. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of family business thinking and has been a leader in this field for over 30 years.

Sri Tatwamasi Dixit: Sri Tatwamasi Dixit is a well-known family business advisor and spiritual leader who works with family businesses across the world. He is internationally recognized for his knowledge and application of the wisdom of the Vedas. Sri Dixit draws on his extensive experience in commercial and management practices to help family businesses work on balancing and blending family and business priorities.