Family Office Navigator

While we will delve deeper into this in the “Charting your Course” chapter, we would like to provide you with an introduction to this concept here in order to illustrate how complex and “rich” your own family enterprise ecosystem actually is. Your family office will serve many dimensions of your ecosystem, so it is vital that you map out all its elements and define where the family office will fit within the broader ecosystem. It is important to note that no two ecosystems are identical. While some core dimensions might be similar, your ecosystem is distinctly different from any other family’s ecosystem.

GET READY FOR YOUR FAMI LY OFF ICE JOURNEY | 30 Who are we as a family? What do we own?

The key dimensions of your family enterprise ecosystem are expressed through the following questions:

How are we organized?

What is our role in society, and our impact on the environment?

We will come back to these dimensions later in the book as they form the basis of many of the activities that we have put together for you and your family.

The Health of your Family Enterprise Ecosystem

As in any ecosystem, the overall health of the system and its inhabitants is of critical importance for long-term survival. All factors and actors are inter dependent.

It is our belief that any family enterprise ecosystem can only be successful in the long run if the family carefully manages five areas:

1. The individuals in the ecosystem 2. The family 3. Ownership 4. Businesses activities 5. Broader society and the environment

We illustrate the five dimensions that collectively represent a healthy family enterprise ecosystem in the Five Stone Model.