Dennis Jaffe, Ph.D., has been a leading architect of the field of family enterprise consulting and is an acclaimed speaker and workshop leader in programs for business families and financial service firms. Dennis is a research associate at Wise Counsel Research and leads their 100-Year Family Enterprise Research Program. He is also Family Business Scholar at the Smith Family Business Program at Cornell University, a faculty advisor at the Ultra High Net Worth Institute, and a regular contributor to Forbes Leadership channel reporting on cross-generational family business and wealth. His new book is Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises.
Top Takeaways: Generative Value Creative Families in Business with Dennis Jaffe
- Generative Value Creative Families in Business
- Aesop’s fable- wealth only survives 3 generations
- I wanted to study successful multi-generational families
- Average net worth of families studied over $800m
- This is a story of families, not businesses, the evolution of families
- Looking for commonalities among successful families worldwide
- Different cultures, similarities in building wealth
- Business creators all over the world have similarities
- Successful second and third generation companies make a shift to create non-financial value
- 2nd and third generation wealth want to do something important
- Successful family businesses invest in education and training of the younger generations
- Successful multi-generational business families work together, they have family councils, set up foundations and learn together
- The 1st generation doesn’t just tell the 2nd generation what to do, they listen and learn from the next generation
- The 2nd generation of the business has more innovation; the first generation excels by working harder
- The older generation has to change and grow as much as the younger generation
- Alliance of elders, advisors and the younger generation
- You’re not taught to listen to your kids, you must do it yourself
- By the 3rd generation there isn’t “a” business, there are multiple businesses
- These families don’t order people to participate, they make it fun, so they want to participate
- Successful families make being active and engaged with the family interesting
- The money isn’t yours; it is the family’s. The family is creating wealth
- Your job isn’t to subtract from wealth, but add to it
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Learning From Leaders:
Current Book: Ready or Not: Preparing Our Kids to Thrive in an Uncertain and Rapidly Changing World by Madeline Levine PhD
Leadership Superpower: Intuition
Additional Items Mentioned
Dennis’s website: dennisjaffe.com
Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises by Dennis T. Jaffe
