Family Business Consulting
Shared ownership requires an agreed way to make decisions in the context of family relationships. Jennifer Strom helps families develop or readdress governance that clarifies responsibilities across the family, ownership group, board, and management while giving important conversations an appropriate place to happen.
The work can involve an operating business, shared investments, a family office, real estate and/or philanthropic assets. The starting point is the family’s actual needs and the decisions its current structure does not adequately address.
Clarify roles and decision authority
Family membership, ownership, board service, and employment carry different responsibilities. Jennifer helps families distinguish these roles and identify where authority sits, how input is gathered, and how decisions are communicated.
A decision-making matrix can support this work. Its development involves understanding existing authority and testing proposed processes with the people who will use them.
Create effective governance forums
A family council, ownership forum, or other governance body needs a clear purpose, appropriate participation, and a workable relationship with the rest of the enterprise. Jennifer helps families define those arrangements and prepare participants to fulfill their responsibilities.
Develop shared expectations
Policies and guardrails can make sensitive decisions more consistent and understandable. Jennifer helps facilitate the discussions behind family employment policies, participation requirements, codes of conduct, and other family agreements. Legal advisors translate decisions into legal provisions where needed.
Make governance usable
Governance needs to function between family meetings. The work may address agendas, reporting, communication, follow-through, and how disagreements are raised. Structures are reviewed as the family and enterprise evolve.
Questions the work can address
- Which decisions belong to owners, the board, management, or the family?
- How do family members who are not employees participate responsibly?
- What is the purpose of our family council or ownership forum?
- How should participation and representation change across generations?
- What expectations should apply to employment, owner engagement, and governance roles?
What an engagement may produce
An engagement may produce a map of current governance, agreed owner goals, a decision-making matrix, governance charters, family policies or Family Constitution, and a plan for education and implementation. The deliverables and sequence depend on the family’s priorities and existing arrangements. We work together to execute on that plan to ensure that the family and owners buy in to the governance structure, understand it, and that it creates a foundation for future generations.
A process that allows time for alignment and implementation
Some issues can be addressed in a focused discussion. Broader governance work often requires a series of conversations, testing, and refinement over many months. Family meetings create opportunities to learn, establish direction, and make decisions as the work develops.