• The Business of Family

  • By: Mike Boyd
  • Podcast
The Business of Family  By  cover art

The Business of Family

By: Mike Boyd
  • Summary

  • Mike Boyd interviews successful families and their advisors to learn how they steward their wealth across generations, managing succession issues to "keep it in the family". Very few family businesses do the work and even fewer make it beyond the third generation. Follow along to learn about family governance structures, family office investing, succession planning and raising happy, healthy and enterprising children of wealth. Learn more and subscribe: https://www.businessoffamily.net/ Follow Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeBoyd
    © 2024 Mike Boyd
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Episodes
  • Trailer - [The Business of Family]
    Jul 28 2020
    Multigenerational wealth creation involves so much more than just capital accumulation. The most successful families cultivate and collect values, stories, knowledge and resources to pass on to the next generation. The systems and processes to do this are very intentional. Very few do the work and even fewer make it beyond the 3rd generation. Join Mike Boyd (https://mikeboyd.com.au/) on The Business of Family (https://www.businessoffamily.net/) Podcast as he interviews members of some of the world's most interesting families about how they pass knowledge, resources, values and wealth to the next generation. Family Constitutions and annual letters Family meetings and retreats Succession planning Stewardship Family Office investing Multi-generational wealth creation and preservation Enduring companies and familes Family enterprise Human, Intellectual and Financial Capital I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some extremely successful families in my travels and gleaned insights from how each are shaping their legacy. Many will tell you that it’s the human, intellectual and spiritual capital that makes them successful for generations & that financial capital is simply a function of their success in these areas. If multigenerational families and businesses fascinate you too, subscribe now to The Business of Family Podcast. I hope you enjoy sharing this learning journey with me and would greatly appreciate any feedback, resources or referrals you have to offer. https://twitter.com/MikeBoyd/status/1277889154601201664 For more episodes go to BusinessOfFamily.net (https://www.businessoffamily.net/) Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at newsletter.mikeboyd.com.au (http://newsletter.mikeboyd.com.au/) Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd (https://twitter.com/MikeBoyd) If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes (http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1525326745), I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!
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    3 mins
  • Scott Peppet - Building a Family-Focused Office for Sam Zell
    Jun 20 2022
    Scott Peppet serves as the President of Chai Trust Company LLC, the private trust company that serves as the family office for Sam Zell (https://www.egizell.com/people/sam-zell/) and his family. Equity Group Investments (https://www.egizell.com/), a division of Chai trust, provides investment management services on its behalf. From 2000 to 2018, Scott was a professor of Law at the University of Chicago where he focused on Bargaining, Dispute Resolution, Translational Law, and the complexities of multigenerational family enterprises. Scott speaks regularly on Family Offices, Private Trust companies as well as Intergenerational Leadership while also maintaining an active website (https://scottpeppet.com/). Scott is a G2 family member. He is Sam Zell's son-in-law, having married Sam's eldest daughter. Standout Quotes: * "Business works on short wavelengths and family works on very long wavelengths" - [Peter Evans, Scott] * "What does it mean to try and help family members really develop and really take ownership, so they can figure out how to deploy what they have?" - [Scott] * "There are many different kinds of wealth… you probably aren't put on the earth to grow the financial capital, there's lots of professionals who can help you do that" - [Scott] * "Too often, the implicit message sent to family members is 'this system is really here to steward the money" - [Scott] * “Families rarely fail for taking too much risk, they fail for taking too little risk” - [Scott] * "My goal is to create a family-focused office, not a family office, and a trusted company, not a Trust company" - [Scott] * "If you want to succeed you have to have a family that understands what you're doing" - [Scott] Key Takeaways: * Scott is the President of Chai Trust Company, LLC, the private trust company that serves as the family office for Sam Zell and his family. Equity Group Investments, a division of Chai trust, provides investment management services on its behalf. From 2000 to 2018, Scott was a professor of Law at the University of Chicago where he focused on Bargaining, Dispute Resolution, Translational Law, and the complexities of multigenerational family enterprises. He speaks on Family Offices, Private Trust companies as well as Intergenerational Leadership while also maintaining his active website. Scott is a G2 family member, as he is Sam Zell's son-in-law. * Scott got married to Sam's older daughter 20 years ago while he was already teaching as a Law professor. Since then he got increasingly curious about family enterprises till he fully transitioned into working in the family enterprise. After a few months of knowing each other, they started dating but Scott had no idea about her family wealth till she opened up about it. * About Sam Zell: Sam is a serial entrepreneur, who first built a business in Real Estate, following which he turned to distressed Corporate Investing in the 80s, and then in the 90s, he created some of the largest REITs in the US today. He has continued to work on REITs and corporate investing since then. He has done several businesses over the years. Sam is also known for his straight talk, always making his stand clear in any discussion. He is also very astute and broad in his thinking. * As a Law professor, Scott worked on conflict intervention with corporations all over the world. When he started having kids, he got curious about how the family wealth could be managed productively for the family, especially for the kids. Sam encouraged him to work on it. Some authors that stood out in Scott's study were Jay Hughes and John Davis. * Scott describes the family structure; at the time Scott joined the family, Sam was 59 years, his 3 children were in their 30s, and as of now, there are 9 grandchildren. There was a form of governance structure, a board with his 3 children which wasn't functional as Sam made most decisions. However, now there has been a need to rebuild the structure as the company has evolved and this has been a huge part of Scott's focus since he moved full-time into the family enterprise. He has had to put in a lot of work to fully understand how the family enterprise functions; to make things change in a family system that often moves very slowly, you have to know where you're going. It involves a combination of urgency and patience, while thinking long-term, steps need to be taken early and consistently. Most of the family members are not employees, some of them are on the board. There is one board with both independent and family directors. * The business continues to be eclectic, investing across all kinds of sectors, especially with the benefit of permanent long-term capital. At the same time, complex actions and decisions can be taken quickly. Also, family learning and development are being built as the kids grow to become adults. * In the inflationary period currently, the business finds smaller companies that need capital and expertise to grow to the next level; companies...
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Peter Evans - Trusted Advisor to Legacy Families & Member of a 7th Generation Family Holding Company
    Apr 24 2022
    Peter Evans is an advisor, consultant, and speaker to legacy families, family offices, and multigenerational enterprises all around the world. Peter creates the opportunities where affluent families have the greatest chance of flourishing. Peter is also part of a legacy family himself; he is a 5th generation member of a 7th generation American enterprise established in 1885. Peter married into this family and was astounded by the welcoming and inclusive nature of his wife's large family. The family enterprise is now a holding company with over 500 shareholders, all of whom are family members. Of particular interest are the Family Summits held annually, which are designed to re-engage family members, partake in family traditions and rituals, discuss philanthropy and reset for the year ahead. Peter shares his experience of what it was like to join a well-established legacy family and how he has used this unique experience to pivot his career and help other legacy families flourish. Standout Quotes: * "We can't really plan significantly for longer than 5-10 years, you just learn that along the way, things change; the world changes" - [Peter] * "I'm really interested in making sure that the family's values are aligned with their actions" - [Peter] * "To have some sort of formal way of telling stories, I think, is critical" - [Peter] * "The most important thing you'll do are these rituals" - [Peter] * "If we have the privilege of having wealth and means, we have an obligation to give back" - [Peter] Key Takeaways: * Peter is the 5th generation member of a 7th generation American enterprise established in 1885. He is an adviser, consultant, and speaker to legacy families, family offices, and multigenerational enterprises globally. He became a part of the family when he married his wife and was included. * The company began as a group of lumber companies started by two brothers who liquidated everything after 45 years to invest with their partner, Friedrich Weyerhäuser in 1901. Peter's family had continued to be involved with the business as it expanded, although there were no male heirs in the second generation, till the 3rd generation. The family later started a private trust company in 1964, at which point they became the 3rd largest retailer of building materials in the US. * Today with diversification, they are now a holding company with over 500 shareholders, all of whom are family members. Peter's children are already involved with the family business actively and eagerly look forward to partaking in the annual family meetings. * The Family Summit: This annual family meeting usually runs over 3-5 days, on the same weekend every year, with activities like the coming-of-age ritual and elders’ ritual, Olympic games, business meetings, philanthropy group meetings, and talks by guest speakers. The goal is to make it so interesting that people want to come back. * Planning Never Stops; the family forms a long-range planning committee every 5 years to have a clean slate to think through everything. A pattern of liquidating a significant resource once every 20 years was also observed; this 'Generational Harvest' would provide liquidity to each shareholder, giving them the freedom to make their own investments. * The family investments today are largely in Real Estate, like residence halls or low-income housing units, all intentionally inclined towards 'doing well by doing good' which is a value the family holds. * Peter left his role as president of the family enterprise in 2003 and has since then helped other family enterprises manage their multigenerational interests. He believes families with vast amounts of capital can make decisions that affect millions of lives and works to ensure that these families act in accordance with their values. "I can hold a mirror up to you so that you can begin to see yourself, your family system, and your footprint in the world; the other thing I can do is open the window so that you can look out into the world and see how other families made choices during different transitions" * Peter's most satisfying work is sitting with family members and watching the interactions; his work is focused on helping build bridges in communication and relationships. His role is a position between being a business consultant, priest, and therapist all of which require a deep level of trust and respect. At its core, his work is about relationships. * Peter’s role as a 'Personne de confiance': This is a confidential advisor based on their trust, respect, and honesty. The way to get into that role is to come into the family that needs help, taking time to build trust and confidence. Very often Peter has to model a way of doing things like chairing a meeting, inclusion, and effective decision-making while keeping in mind that the goal is to pass on the mantle of leadership. Most of the time, the G2 generation is the one that reaches out to him, however, in some cases when the patriarchs are ...
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    54 mins

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