Redefiners
Leadership Lounge: How can family enterprise leaders stay ahead in a fast-changing world?
12 Feb 2025
We explore how family enterprise leaders can strike the right balance between preserving their organization's legacy and adapting to an evolving business landscape. How can family enterprise leaders stay ahead in a fast-changing world? Family enterprises are the backbone of economies worldwide, but their leaders face an increasingly critical challenge: how to preserve their organizations' legacies in a fast-changing world. What makes some family enterprises thrive across generations while others struggle to adapt? How can leaders maintain what made their organization successful while meeting the demands of a new business landscape? And what skills will the next generation of family enterprise leaders need to navigate an increasingly complex future? In this episode of Leadership Lounge, we talk to some of our trusted advisors—Justus O'Brien, Anupama Puranik, Diego Esteban, and Peter Gramkov—who share their perspectives on: How successful family enterprises maintain their core values while adapting to market changes Why engaging the next generation is critical for innovation and growth How to navigate tension during periods of transformation What skills future family enterprise leaders will need to thrive "One key skill that leaders need is emotional intelligence. You need to understand what is going on in the family. You need to understand the values. But it's super important not only to understand potentially one generation, but several generations.” Peter Gramkov, Leadership Advisor, Russell Reynolds Associates. Four things you'll learn from this episode Values and traditions are the heart of every family enterprise. Next-generation leaders must understand the importance of carrying them forward. Keeping pace with transformation can be the difference between whether a family enterprise can endure across generations—or not. The most successful family enterprises approach succession proactively rather than in reaction to a leadership departure or crisis. Exceptional family enterprise leaders combine strong business acumen with emotional intelligence, active listening, and the confidence to challenge constructively. In this 17-minute episode, we will cover: (00:01:31) How successful family enterprises balance preservation and progress (00:06:06) The role of independent board directors in driving change (00:09:23) How to create personalized development paths for future leaders (00:12:20) Why active listening skills are critical for transformation (00:13:47) What the future holds for family enterprises globally A closer look at the research from this episode: Family Enterprise Advisory Global Leadership Monitor H1 2024 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Full Episode
Welcome to the Leadership Lounge, a place to kick back and listen as our experts dissect some of the biggest questions leaders face today. I'm Emma Coombe, Leadership Advisor in our London office. Today, we're talking about family enterprise leadership. These businesses are the backbone of economies around the world,
But their leaders face an increasingly critical challenge, how to preserve their organization's legacies in a fast-changing world. So in today's episode, I'm excited that we're exploring how family enterprise leaders can successfully balance preservation and progress. How can leaders maintain what made their organization successful while adapting to a new business landscape?
And what are the top issues that leaders will need to think about if they are to continue to thrive across generations? Before we dive in, remember to share any burning questions you want our experts to answer by emailing redefiners at russellreynolds.com. We look forward to hearing from you and we'd love your feedback on these episodes.
If you enjoy listening, please leave us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. So let's dive into the topic. Our first guest in the Leadership Lounge today is Justice O'Brien, Leadership Advisor in Russell Reynolds Associates' Stanford office and global leader of RRA's Family Enterprise Advisory Practice. Justice, welcome to the Leadership Lounge. It's great to have you back.
Thanks, Emma. It's great to be here.
So Justice, how do successful family enterprises maintain their core values while adapting to market changes?
What we've observed with family businesses that have flourished over generations is how central the value system is to those businesses. Our view is that companies that focus on the values as opposed to a set of rules tend to thrive and tend to be able to pass on those values from one generation to the next.
Good companies engage the next generation and engage them in the strategy and strategy development. They make them participate in that. That's a way in which
you know family-owned businesses can strike the right balance between continuity enduring values and refreshing their strategy and refreshing their thinking by bringing in the next generation you bring in new thinking which in a sense helps bring that business into the present tense and into the eventually into the future as opposed to being firmly rooted in the past of the business
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