I have spent most of my life preaching to various family businesses, that they are killing themselves by sticking to just an operator's mindset. Recently I came across this video of Andrea Pontremoli - CLICK HERE to view this short video (Andrea Pontremoli is the CEO and partner in Dallara Automobili since 2007. He began …
Author: Silvan Mifsud
Conflicts in Family Business
One of the common challenges Family Businesses face is that of dealing with Conflict. Research on conflict in family businesses shows that that are many times common patterns that cover the vast majority of conflicts. This is important as it could help family business owners and leaders understand how they can be proactive in preventing …
The Foundations of a successful family business transition
Research from the world acclaimed US family business researcher, Joe Astrachan, points out that the success of a generational transition of family business rests first and foremost on a mixture of good corporate governance and proper family governance. Hence the three main key and foundational aspects on which a successful generational family business transition needs …
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A Family or Non-Family CEO?
I believe it does not take much to realise that I am passionate about the subject of Family Business and that helping family businesses is more of a life mission than just a job for me. This leads me to constantly reading the latest research on family businesses from across the globe. One of these …
Data-Driven Decision Making
Many family business owners have a romanticised and over positive view about the value of business decisions based on intuition. It is a common occurrence that when I simple ask family business owners on what basis they take their decision, they reply with a smirk on their face that they can rely on their “gut” …
Good Managers – Where are you?
It is a common occurrence that I hear from business owners that they feel disappointed about their managers. That many times they have to follow up or intervene as their managers do not really take fully responsibility of what needs to be done. Many times this is manifested by having managers and their teams show …
Listen to Grow
Quiet, attentive listening doesn’t always come naturally to us. When we talk over others or just do not take a few minutes to listen - we might waste hours — or months — as we push things in the wrong direction. Why, then, is it so natural for us all to try to dominate conversation? …
Easter & Succession Planning
If one where to sit down and think, you would conclude that Jesus Christ was likely to be the best at drawing up a succession plan. He realised that succession planning is not an event but a journey. Thus, he started from Day 1 building his core team - The Apostles. He spent 3 years …
The Operator’s Mindset epidemy across generations
A common situation I see in family business is the following. An old generation with an ingrained true owner-operator mindset in the classic sense, familiar with all day-to-day details of the family business and focused almost exclusively on daily operators. Then the next generation comes along. Many times I see next generation family business leaders …
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Mindset is everything
As I am just 2 days away from turning 47, I wanted to share a life reflection which is so relevant for one of the main limitations I find in family business owners and leaders. Mindset is everything. If that statement seems too strong, consider that we bring so many basic assumptions to every decision …
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