Family businesses – which account for around 90% of the total in Italy – represent the main structure of the Italian economic and entrepreneurial system, as they generate 80% of GDP and employ 75% of the population. Their success and longevity largely depend on managing the generational handover, the transfer of leadership and/or ownership from one generation to the next. This is a critical stage for any business, which in family businesses takes on peculiar connotations due to the addition to the managerial challenges of those linked to family relationships, asserts Salvatore Tomaselli, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Palermo and consultant in Family Business Strategy and Governance. One of the founders of the Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA), a luminary with a global outlook, he has always combined academic and professional activities, assisting countless family businesses in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Australia. Tomaselli points out that while the post-pandemic macroeconomic context has pushed many entrepreneurs to focus on short-term problems, the dizzying evolution of technologies and the sudden geopolitical and social changes impose a continuous adjustment of managerial models and a relentless drive for innovation on the business front; at the same time, the evolution of the social and cultural context affects family dynamics, sometimes cooling relations between family members and weakening the culture of solidarity between family and business. It becomes of utmost importance to project beyond the horizon of the current generation, to manage successfully the transitions between the different stages of development of the business and the family, to build a balance between the family owning the capital and the business through a governance system that aligns the objectives of the two parties. This will help overcome conflicts and difficulties in making personal and corporate interests compatible, and balancing family traditions with the needs for innovation and change. “I have dedicated my career to studying and facilitating these processes,” reports Tomaselli. “My passion for these unique dynamics and my more than 30 years of experience working with family businesses of all sizes and sectors has allowed me to develop specific solutions to these problems. These include: a pathway to assist entrepreneurial families in drafting family agreements; the Family-in Business Model Canvas (FiBMC), which enables the design of the entrepreneurial family’s ‘Value Proposition’, balancing family members’ benefit expectations with useful contributions to the development of the entrepreneurial project; the ‘Holistic Balanced Scorecard for Family Businesses’, a strategic management approach that considers four dimensions: Enterprise, Family, Wealth and Person.
Recently, I launched a digital service aimed at family business owners to help them manage the evolving relationship between family and business; a programme, entitled ‘Entrepreneurial Dynasty’, which offers guidance on managing multi-generational cohabitation, generational transition, conflict and balancing the needs of family and business. A transformative programme, full of practical advice and successful examples, it helps entrepreneurs and their families navigate the unique challenges of their business, supporting the competitiveness of the company and its innovativeness. Ultimately, my goal is to help family businesses thrive and navigate through the unique challenges they face, ensuring that future generations are ready to take the reins; to face and overcome crises, becoming stronger and able to grow, or antifragile, with a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and applied by me in the context of family businesses”.
For more info (cell. +39 3890418687 – Website: salvatoretomaselli.eu)
