Why you should practice your ownership strategy as consistently as brushing your teeth
And it starts by asking yourself, am I still the best owner?
owner strategy

What you need to know

  • Transgenerational wealth creation is the result of sustained and successful ownership advantage, fueled by a strong familial and entrepreneurial orientation.
  • While there’s been a marked decline in operational involvement in German family businesses, there’s an increase in active ownership roles among the family and their family office.
  • As many family businesses expand to include non-family executives, the onus is on the owners to set goals and guidelines in line with their vision and collaborate with these leaders to hit these targets.
  • To best serve your family business and its executives, you need to be the best owner you can be, which starts by developing a strong owner strategy. To do this, start by asking: Am I still the best owner for this business?
  • We explore how a routine for your owner strategy can help your family continue to be the best owner, or steward, of its business legacy from generation to generation.
Operations Updated on October 21, 2022

Transgenerational wealth creation is the result of a sustained and successful owner strategy. Yet these advantages need a strong engine, to energize their ongoing and sometimes strenuous adaptation. Its fuel is a mixture of familial and entrepreneurial orientation and reflection. The first question here is: is the purpose of your family still fueling distinctive advantages that make you the best owner of all your business assets? While operational involvement in the family business declines in Germany we see an increase of active-ownership roles amongst enterprising families together with the family offices. ‘Better’ owners within a family provide their growing team of non-family executives with a clear set of KPIs and guidelines as to what long-term success looks like for them. Collaboration between owners and leaders is the new normal and will become more established as a new modus-operandi. Below, we explore how a routine for your owner strategy can help your enterprising family continue to be the best owner, or steward, of its business legacy from generation to generation.

From business leadership to active ownership

In the founder model, the daily management of the family business was everything and there was no need for an owner strategy or even formal owner gatherings. Many highly successful “hidden champions” in Germany operate this way.

About the Authors

Christian Schiede

Christian Schiede

Entrepreneurship & ownership strategy

Christian Schiede draws on 15+ years of experience working with 'hidden-champions', the larger German family businesses, and advises entrepreneurial families.

Connect with Christian Schiede

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Simple solutions for complex times.