Engaged Ownership: A Guide for Owners of Family Businesses

Praise for ENGAGED OWNERSHIP

"Ownership is strategy. The controlling shareholders of Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, along with Patek Philippe, Hermès, and Ford know this. But you never hear that from business academics and management consultants. Engaged Ownership responds to the need to get the record straight. Engaging owners and creating the governance system that mediates their relationship with their wealth and enterprises is the fundamental challenge of family enterprises. Amelia Renkert–Thomas nails it in this book. Engaged Ownership is a timely book; read it and practice it!"
Ernesto J. Poza, Founder and owner of E. J. Poza Associates, Inc. and family–business.com; Professor Emeritus, Thunderbird School of Global Management

"The story of the Owen family over several generations vividly illustrates how engaged owners can make not just a great difference in the success of a company, but add a form of value that cannot be duplicated with good management alone. I will share this book with my clients who are looking ahead to how they will organize their ownership structure to cross generations."
Dennis T. Jaffe, PHD, Wise Counsel Associates

"Amelia captivates the reader with a family business case study that illustrates key steps and best practices to building engaged ownership in a family. A must–read for founders and those looking to pass on the family enterprise to future generations."
Kirby Rosplock, PHD, author of The Complete Family Office Handbook; CEO, Tamarind Partners Inc.

"Amelia′s work offers empathy and experience dedicated to creating a road map for ′engaged ownership′ and meeting the challenges of ′shared purpose′ in family businesses. Her book is a living tutorial which offers readers ′Aha′ moments of awareness and motivates them to take the well–articulated steps to achieve truly engaged ownership. I highly recommend it to family business owners and their ′constellation′ of advisors who seek to preserve and perpetuate the family legacy and its core capital. It is insightful and instructive."
Lorraine F. George–Harik, Partner, HPM Partners LLC

"Engaged Ownership explores the question confronting all multi–generational business families: ′Why do we want to be owners of this business together, if at all?′ Amelia Renkert–Thomas has crafted a tightly written guide for family enterprise owners and their consultants and advisors that will help them make decisions that are right for the individual family members, the family enterprise, and the family as a whole. A must–read for family business advisors!"
Michael T. Hartley, CFP, CEO, DKE Inc., Family Office Division

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I: Engaged Ownership: An Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1 More at Stake than Money

Chapter 2 Achieving Engaged Ownership

Chapter 3 Engaged Ownership: Hallmarks and Impediments

Part II: Getting Organized

Chapter 4 Family Business Roles and Relationships

Chapter 5 The Legacy of the Past: Natural Governance, Family History, and Culture

Chapter 6 Enumerating Core Capital

Chapter 7 Shared Purpose

Chapter 8 Vision and Mission

Chapter 9 Is It Good Enough ?

Chapter 10 Alternatives to Engaged Ownership

Part III: Practicing Engaged Ownership

Chapter 11 Forums

Chapter 12 Allocating Power among Owners, Board, and Management

Chapter 13 Working with Other Forums

Chapter 14 Meetings

Chapter 15 Policies

Part IV: Three Challenges: Hats, Trusts, and Outside Investors

Chapter 16 When an Owner Also Runs the Enterprise

Chapter 17 When an Owner Is Also a Trustee

Chapter 18 Bringing in Outside Investors

Chapter 19 Epilogue

Appendix: Sample Decision Grid

About the Author

Index

AMELIA RENKERT–THOMAS jointly founded Withers Consulting Group, an award winning international family–business consultancy. She works with families and enterprises of all shapes and sizes, from entrepreneurs coping with the consequences of liquidity events to large multi–generational families with highly sophisticated business and investment structures. She helps families to design tailored governance structures, create more effective board structures, form and govern family offices, set up shareholder councils, and make trusts more functional.

Her understanding of the complexities family businesses face stem not only from her consulting work but also from her own family background. She is the former President of Ironrock, Inc., her family′s fifth generation manufacturing business, and the granddaughter of the founder of Fisher Price Toys.

Amelia′s consulting work fills a void between family dynamics and management consultancy. Her work reduces and manages the conflicts that can be created by structures of ownership, such as voting and non–voting shares, trusts, partnerships, and foundations, all of which are very familiar to Amelia as a trained lawyer. Her work on ownership has been referred to as "the missing piece of the puzzle" for family businesses.

Because of her mix of personal and professional experience, Amelia is often asked to comment in the press and provide consulting and training for families and family business advisers alike.