Family Office Navigator

Family Enterprise Ecosystem

Family Office Navigator | 29

Imagine your family as an environmental ecosystem, such as a coral reef. We use this visual metaphor because we see some parallels between family enterprise ecosystems with the natural world and strongly believe in the power of metaphors to help everyone in the family imagine their own ecosystem. A coral reef is a diverse underwater ecosystem made up of colonies of tiny living organisms which, along with other organisms (like algae, sponges, and fish), create a complex and colourful environment that provides food, shelter, and protection for a wide variety of marine life. The health of this reef depends on countless factors, some environmental, some internal, some familiar, some unanticipated. Building on this visual metaphor, your family enterprise ecosystem contains all the actors and factors that comprise your family and its network – your core family and wider family circles, your business(es) and investments, your assets, your philanthropic activities, your homes, your relationships within the family and beyond, your service providers and employees. Outside of your family and its various assets and resources are all of the external elements and actors that influence your enterprise ecosystem – the economic and political environment you are embedded in, including regulations, market dynamics and competitors, political systems, tax authorities, banks and your immediate community, for example.

For the purpose of this book, we define a Family Enterprise Ecosystem as follows:

“A Family Enterprise Ecosystem is a dynamic and evolving system that includes all aspects related to your family, the businesses and other assets that your family owns, the way in which you govern the family, ownership, businesses & wealth, as well as your role in society and impact on the environment.”