Ownership Development in the Family Business: Tools for the Rising Generation

Very few enterprising families focus on building an owner’s mindset in family members. They are busy working and growing their enterprises (rightly so), which prioritizes and values the management role over the ownership role. Many rising generation family members do not choose the path of ownership but are simply born into it. Given these typical patterns, it is not surprising that there is little focus on valuing and building an educated owner to steward the family’s assets for future generations.
This book serves as a resource and support tool to help enterprising families learn and develop thoughtful, capable ownership by investing in and nurturing an owner’s mindset. This includes building ＂ownership literacy,＂ along with a genuine sense of stewardship. It offers a learning structure and approach for each stage of an owner’s development across the lifespan (from earliest years to retirement), taking into consideration the lifecycle stages of the family. The authors make clear that ownership development shouldn’t be confined to earlier ages; any owner at any age can gain ownership-related perspective and skills that can contribute to greater family harmony and business success.
The book provides enterprising families and their advisors with examples and practical advice for the promotion of knowledge, skills, and capabilities that incorporate a broad range of topics spanning from personal and interpersonal, to leadership and wealth, to business, ownership, and financial.

Barbara Dartt is a consultant for The Family Business Consulting Group, assisting businesses with succession strategies, long-term planning, management transitions and family governance implementation, as well as other opportunities and challenges unique to family-owned businesses.
Wendy is a senior consultant at the Family Business Consulting Group, working closely with business leaders, family firms, and boards. She brings deep knowledge and perspective to global clients across sectors, facilitating meaningful conversations with multi-generational families on governance, firm continuity, leadership, next generation preparation, and conflict resolution.

Gaia Marchisio is Aronoff Professor of Family Business and Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship. As Executive Director of the Cox Family Enterprise Center, she keeps innovating both her content and delivery methods by developing degree and non-degree programs to educate both entrepreneurial families, and professional advisor so they can better serve their clients.