Owner Development
Develop yourself, your organization, and your family
The Challenge
Engaged ownership and effective leadership rarely exist in a vacuum — they require a lifetime of learning and development. Not only do young owners need to build a general awareness of their family enterprise and the challenges of continuity, but leaders of all ages need to invest in expanding their knowledge base to keep pace with a rapidly changing environment. When families get this right, their owners and leaders can create significant long-term value for all of their stakeholders.
Our Solution
Wherever you are in your learning journey, LGA offers a range of workshops, seminars, and experiential opportunities — from one-off sessions to comprehensive multi-year owner development programs. Each offering is tailored to the unique developmental needs of the family, its owners, and its leadership teams.
Our focus is on building the key competencies necessary to sustain the success of your family enterprise across generations, with unique programming for each of the four types of owners:
Engaged Owners – Stewarding the Family Enterprise:
Owners who are neither in governance or management roles but care about the family business (e.g., participate, prepare, stay informed)
Governing Owners – Representing the Owners:
Owners who serve exclusively in governance roles (e.g., boards, councils, committees above CEO or in family governance)
Leading Owners – Leading the Enterprise:
Leaders of the governance structures (boards, councils, committees, etc.) ensuring they function properly
Operating Owners – Running the Business:
Owners who serve in management roles and are deeply connected to the enterprise (e.g. including CEO or below)
How does it work?
Within each of these ownership groups, your LGA advisor can help you design a strategic curriculum to develop five core competencies:
- Contextual Intelligence: Knowing and understanding the past, present, and future plans for the family and the business
- Business Acumen: Ability to understand and interact with business data and situations effectively
- Practicing Governance: Understanding and navigating the roles, processes, and rules for decision-making throughout the enterprise
- Interpersonal Skills: Communicating, collaborating, and managing conflict effectively
- Values & Ethics: Aligning personal actions with shared norms of appropriate behavior
How does your family benefit?
Our experience as educators has taught us that family members each have unique learning profiles and preferences. Consequently, our owner development programs draw on a variety of conventional and experiential formats, including keynote presentations, curated site visits, fireside chats with enterprise leaders, peer sessions with other leading families, and hands-on simulations and exercises facilitated by LGA advisors.
We work with family leaders to assess your family’s readiness for educational programming, key topics of interest, preferred formats of learning, and the ideal frequency and location of these activities. This data will help us ensure the greatest participation and impact of these investments in your family’s human capital. Once built, these programs are often institutionalized in the form of a Family Academy, which is available on an ongoing basis and serves as the first point of exposure for young family members to the family enterprise.
For those families who aren’t yet ready to build and deploy a multi-year program, we also offer a variety of stand-alone programs.
Leveraging decades of experience both on-campus and working closely with families like yours, LGA can help you build your own development program that will lay the foundations for sustaining success across generations.
Case Study
Case Study: Sustaining Engagement in a Cousins Consortium
Three third-generation Family Directors of a large enterprising family were attending a global conference focused on innovation and growth. Their 90-year old family had deep pride and gratitude for the success and leadership of previous generations. However, there were no family members currently working actively in the business, and the family’s only connection to their vast operations — which spanned eight industries and three continents — was limited to these three members of the Board.
Related Insights
From Transaction to Continuity – Rethinking Executive Search in the Family Enterprise
In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse podcast, host Tim Yeung sits down with Bill Strandberg, founder of Strandberg, to discuss the critical nuances of executive search within family-owned businesses. Bill explores why hiring a leader in a family system is not merely a recruitment task, but a vital decision for long-term leadership continuity.
From Presence to Impact: Making Independent Directors Matter in Family Enterprise Governance
Introducing independent directors into a family enterprise is often perceived as a significant milestone in the evolution of governance. It signals openness, professionalization, and a willingness to incorporate external perspectives into decision-making.
How Coaching Unlocks Family Enterprise Potential
In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse podcast, host Tim Yeung sits down with Wendy Ulaszek, a Partner at LGA and Head of Leadership Coaching. With a PhD in clinical psychology and extensive experience coaching leaders within family enterprise systems, Wendy explores the intersection of human behavior and enterprise governance.
The discussion focuses on how individual growth serves as a catalyst for healthier family systems and provides a roadmap for leaders looking to transition from their current state to their aspirational potential.
How Can Family Offices Navigate the Age of AI and Geopolitical Shifts?
In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse podcast, host Tim Yeung is joined by seasoned economist Dimitris Valatsas, an LGA advisor that specializes in helping family enterprises and family offices navigate complex geopolitical and macroeconomic changes.
What Can Elite Performers Teach Your Family Business About Success?
In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse podcast, host Tim Yeung interviews Dr. Alex
Auerbach, a performance psychologist who has worked with elite professional athletes and
high-performing individuals. Alex shares powerful insights on how the principles of peak
performance psychology can be applied to family enterprises to foster long-term success.
When Silence Speaks: Are Family Business Conflicts a Threat or a Source of Strength?
In a family business, conflict is often perceived as a threat to the family’s very core. When siblings disagree, or when parents and children argue about the business, the stakes go far beyond strategy or finances. The deeper fear is that the relationship itself may crack. The possibility that a disagreement could damage the family creates real, often overwhelming anxiety. It can feel like there’s no safe way forward.
Featured advisors
Sofi M. Vollmer
Sofi has specialized in working with family enterprises and family offices globally, with a strong focus on education and policies
Kimberly Go
Kimberly is a family enterprise advisor specializing in next-generation engagement, intergenerational alignment, and governance in complex family systems. She works with multigenerational families through continuity, helping them address conflict while guiding decision-making that balances collective legacy with individual agency.
Bobby Ning
With 25 years of experience, Bobby empowers wealth inheritors within enterprising families, equipping them with the essential mindset, practical tools, and crucial communication skills to become responsible owners and stewards of their wealth. He specializes in owner education development and financial literacy, delivering comprehensive wealth, tax, and estate management education tailored specifically for family enterprise and business leaders.
Alphil Guilaran
With 25 years of experience, Alphil empowers wealth inheritors to become responsible owners and stewards of their family’s legacy. He’s passionate about fostering financially literate generations, helping families bridge communication gaps to preserve their values and vision.
Ernie Patterson
Ernie is focused on designing, implementing, and supporting governance systems and educational programs within complex multi-generational family enterprises.
Thomas Ang
Thomas is a Partner with LGA, where he leads the firm’s Global Practice for Family Offices and is the lead advisor for Asia.