Family Businesses
We help families achieve the continuity of their entrepreneurial legacy
Most of our clients manage a portfolio of operating companies built around a shared entrepreneurial legacy.
They include some of the largest and oldest enterprising families in the United States and Canada, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Their revenues typically range from $250 million to over $100 billion, and they are active across a range of industries and geographies.
What they all have in common is a desire to achieve continuity across generations, and a recognition that past success is no guarantee for the future.
Achieving multi-generational continuity takes considerable time and effort, and every generation needs to develop its own unique plan for growth and renewal – balancing the legacies of the past with the opportunities and challenges of the future.
LGA helps our family business clients invest in continuity by:
- Generating strategic alignment around a shared vision, purpose and values for their operating businesses
- Designing governance systems to oversee and coordinate strategy and leadership across their operating businesses
- Assessing and developing leaders and leadership teams
- Designing efforts to educate, involve, and transition leadership to the next generation
- Facilitating more productive relationships between family members, family employees, and professional staff
- Developing processes for effective risk management
- Educating owners and leaders on the unique characteristics of a Family Business, how they develop predictably over time, and the evolving requirements for long-term success
Featured services
Leadership Development
Strengthening leaders through assessments, skill-building, coaching, and experiential training.
Learn more about our support for Family Businesses
Featured Insights
-Research
Philanthropy in Complex, Multi-Generational Families
For many, family philanthropy presents an opportunity to create a shared experience, unifying the
family by working together toward a lasting legacy of impact. Family philanthropy can also give
participants an opportunity to explore and cultivate their personal—and sometimes separate—
philanthropic passions
-Articles
A Family Foundation Won’t Fix What Isn’t Working
Before establishing a family foundation for the purpose of collective giving, it is imperative that families consider their ability to find common purpose and work together productively. A collective approach to giving should build on a foundation of social capital, rather than be a driving tool to create it.
-Books
Generations Of Giving
“A thorough and powerful work, Generations of Giving: Leadership and Continuity in Family Foundations demands.
-Articles
Why It Took Me Three Years to Finish HBO’s Succession and What It Teaches Us About How Not to Run a Family Enterprise
I tried to watch the award-winning HBO series on numerous occasions, stopping repeatedly, not because it wasn’t brilliant, but because it was brutal. The cynicism, humiliation, and constant power games felt too extreme. For anyone working closely with multi-generational family enterprises, this world of perpetual chaos and zero-sum power felt not only far removed from our reality, but was also a painful mirror reflecting everything that causes a family enterprise to fail.
-Podcasts
Can Families Find Purpose by Giving Together?
In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse podcast, host Tim Yeung interviews Ashley Blanchard, a Partner at LGA and an expert in family philanthropy. Drawing on her co-authored study with Wendy Ulaszek for the National Center for Family Philanthropy, Ashley shares insights on how families can successfully engage the next generation, balance individual interests with collective purpose, and navigate the journey of professionalizing their philanthropic efforts.
-Podcasts
Can Worry Actually Work for You to Parent with Purpose?
In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse Podcast, host Tim Yeung speaks with psychotherapist and author Dr. Dana Dorfman about her book, When Worry Works: How to Harness Your Parenting Stress and Guide Your Teen to Success. They discuss how parents, especially those in successful family enterprises, can transform their achievement-driven anxiety into intentional, values-based parenting.
Featured advisors
Communication
Paula Rincon
Paula specializes in working with business families, helping them navigate interpersonal dynamics, manage conflicts, and strengthen relationships to ensure family harmony.
Agreements
Sharilyn Hale
Sharilyn helps generous families and individuals channel their wealth and influence for good. She works with leading philanthropists and social purpose organizations across North America and the Caribbean, guiding them to give well, engage their families, and create a meaningful legacy.
Agreements
Isabel Pardo
Isabel brings two decades of international wealth management expertise, serving as a dedicated advisor to wealthy and enterprising families. She is passionate about cultivating lasting relationships, built on a foundation of trust and an in-depth understanding of each family’s unique vision and legacy goals.
Leadership
Lisa Lazarus
Lisa is a trusted advisor, strategist, facilitator, and executive coach who applies an equity lens to help families take action.
Boards
Kelin Gersick
Kelin is a Co-founder and Senior Advisor at LGA with over 30 years of experience consulting and teaching around the world.
Communication
Wendy Ulaszek
Wendy is a partner that has over 15 years of consulting and counseling experience in individual, group, and organizational assessment and leadership development.