Family Legacy Asia (HK) Limited

26/06/2014

18/01/2012

What do you look for in a family business advisor?

"In Books there are houses of gold and Ladies of Jade"
Chinese Saying

What do you look for in a family business consultant – or family advisor?

I use this term broadly, and I include consultants who work on family governance, family communication, or who mediate family disputes. Possibly the term I am looking for is Jay Hughes term “Personne de Confiance” (as opposed to a”personnes d’affairs” – see Family, The Compact Among Generations, by James E. Hughes Jr, Bloomberg).

How about the following suggestion?

Look for someone who reads widely and who makes time for personal thinking and reflection.

Someone who tries to synthesize what they read and what they experience in working with families.

Look for someone who is an artist and who is always seeking to refine their art.
Why?

I just realized today that this is just what good family business / family advisors seem to do.

This is a suggestion based on observation!

The "family advisors" that I know and that I look up to do in fact all fall in to this category! They all seem to read a lot, to make time for it, and to think, and to see this as an important part of their practice.

Edwin H. Friedman, a well-known family systems thinker state that to play an effective helping role to families, the person in that helping relationship role has to have his or her own goals for personal growth. This seems to fit with the above observation.

18/01/2012

This is a video from the Family Legacy Asia web site where Barbara Hauser an myself are interviewed talking about family governance, East versus West

27/11/2011

Video interview with Barbara Hauser

The Take 15 Series is a series of short interviews with leading practitioners on timely topics focused on the investment profession.

25/11/2011

Three adult siblings bickered over who would get this little blue bowl when their grandmother died. It had been a freebie--packaged with a store-bought Christmas pudding during the 1950s. Recently a woman who attended an author's talk that I gave at the Westport, Conn. Public Library, told me about ...

19/11/2011

This is a good one from John A Warnick's blog.

18/11/2011

I was interviewed on CNBC Asia talking about family councils and family constitutions for Asian family businesses as a tool for succession planning and keeping the business in the family.

Christian Stewart, managing director of Family Legacy Asia says Asian family businesses face many problems in handing over wealth and control of the business to the next generation.

20/10/2011

Murdoch views News Corp as a family business but who is the successor going to be?

Rupert Murdoch reached his boiling point last winter, a former official said, and delivered a blunt ultimatum to his son James: “You’re coming back to New York, or you’re out.”

20/10/2011

19/10/2011

This 37 minute audio presentation is now on the Family Legacy Asia web site. The topic is Dynasty Planning and the Asian Family Firm

19/10/2011

A report on family philanthropy in Asia

19/10/2011

A useful tool for the family in business together

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