Why? FBS Shared Purpose
Each successful enterprising family is made up of a group (at the outset often one person or a couple) with a Shared Purpose for the future of their enterprise, whether that is an operating business, an investment portfolio or a wide range of assets and activities through which a family is connected. The Shared Purpose comprises a clear Mission, which is grounded in a Values system that is deeply rooted in the family. Each generation has to clarify how the Mission and Values are expressed in a Vision for the enterprise and to identify how individual family member’s Life Aspirations can be fulfilled through a role in the family enterprise. Without a Shared Purpose, as time unfolds, there will just not be enough “glue” to bond the family to each other and to their collective investment.
Mission
The Mission is the true north for an enterprising family against which they will ultimately measure “success”. Sometimes a Mission is closely attached to a specific business, while in other cases it is about a family’s quest to create and extend a legacy of successful ownership that is not linked to any particular business activity. The Mission includes returns that are deemed worthy of the family’s endeavours, for example providing career opportunities and financial security for an expanding number of family members or keeping the family connected as they grow up and grow apart.
Values
Values are what you stand for. The FBS process ensures that the Values expressed as part of a Shared Purpose go beyond a bland list of beliefs with which no-one can easily disagree, and get to the crux of what matters, what the family really stands for, where that stance comes from and what the Values mean to each family member as well as to the family as a group.
Vision
In the FBS Shared Purpose the Vision is multi-faceted because it is created in response to the question, “what does each part of the family enterprise need to do or become in order to achieve the overall Mission in a way that is consistent with our Values?” For example, what do the business, the family office need to do or become? What do the key individuals within the structures and the wider family as a group, all need to do or become in order to achieve the overall Mission? What political, institutional or social contacts need to be maintained? The scope of the Vision is the result of the interaction of a number of relevant dimensions, each of which, like a compass, has a bearing on the direction of the overall enterprise.
Life Aspirations
While the Mission, Values and Vision reflect the collective ambitions of an enterprising family, a successful Shared Purpose also provides opportunities for individual family members and does not make them feel that a role in the family enterprise will constrain them or thwart their ambitions. Understanding the Life Aspirations of each individual is an important part of the FBS process that leads to the creation of a clear and healthy Shared Purpose.
