Proverbs
“When two are of one mind, their strength can cut gold.”
Chinese Proverb
| “To successfully preserve its wealth a family must form a social compact among its members reflecting its shared values, and each successive generation must reaffirm and readapt that social compact….To successfully preserve its wealth, a family must agree to create a system of representative governance, through which it actively practices its values. Each successive generation must reaffirm its participation in that system of governance. …A family can successfully preserve wealth for more than 100 years if the system of representative governance it creates and practices is founded on a set of shared values that express that family’s “differentness.” James E. Hughes Jr., Family Wealth, Keeping it in the Family “A central theoretical assumption of this book is that what drives all successions is a vision of the future, hammered out over time, that embraces the aspirations of both the senior and the junior generations as well as those of their forebears. This vision – which I call a Shared Dream – generates the excitement and energy that every family must have to do the hard work of succession planning.” “…Such a common understanding is critical, because conflict in family businesses is often caused by differences in basic assumptions or values, especially among family members involved in guiding the business’s direction…. Even within families, values are bound to vary. They shape the choice of goals, modify the ability to tolerate risk, and influence ideas about teaching and learning. They show up in family decisions that in turn mould business strategies, and the approach to strategic planning…” |
