Have you considered whether your external advisory team is serving you and your family’s needs?
Businesses often need an objective view on the performance to make what is good better or to identify the “clouds on the horizon” to be able to plan and weather the future storms.

Elite athletes are able to perform at the elite level because they have the team around them from specific sport coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, team head coaches and agents. Each of their team ensures that the athlete can perform at her best and provide objective and constructive feedback to enhance that performance.

In the same way, a family enterprise is a complicated organization/being with plenty of moving parts, and the leaders can often be focused so internally with the day to day business needs that the longer term planning is not addressed regularly. These longer term strategies can include:

– profitability targets
– strategy setting
– human resources, hiring and keeping the right people for the enterprise
– production and distribution chain efficiencies
– succession of the business to the following generations.

Having the right people, both internally and externally can protect your family’s enterprise and make it better because they are tasked with certain longer term goals and objectives and holding the enterprise leadership to account for them. Who and what type of capabilities might make up this team?

– consigliere. More here: Consigliere explained
– HR consultant. in these days of full employment, ensuring that your existing and future people are performing at their best
– strategy coach. helping set strategy and providing feedback on the path of the strategy
– succession consultant. to guide you through the process of succession
– financial consultant. assessing the enterprise’s financial state of well being

Consider the team that you currently have. Is this team serving the enterprise’s longer term needs and goals? Where should you consider adding bench strength to your team?

Learn, think, apply!