Governance design & implementation
Building resilience in family enterprises
The objective of good governance is to ensure accountability and oversight of an agreed strategy, with risks clearly understood and effectively managed, and executive teams secured in place.
Ultimately, this means that owners can sleep well at night, trusting that their interests are protected by a robust combination of people, policies and processes.
Establishing the owners’ board
Owners need a dedicated forum to discuss the major questions surrounding ownership. We believe that an Owners’ Board (or Owners’ Council) is a critical element of any effective family governance structure. Without this forum, critical topics remain unspoken, conflicts lie dormant, and future problems accumulate.
In larger families, a sub-group often represents the wider ownership group on this forum – including voices from the next generation. We frequently work with families organised by branches or “blocks” of cousins, ensuring that each group has appropriate representation on the Owners’ Board.
Clarifying responsibilities
One of the most important roles of the Owners’ Board is to decide:
Which powers it will reserve for itself (on behalf of the wider family ownership group).
Which powers it will delegate down to forums that include non-family executives, non-executive directors and advisors.
Each owner group addresses this balance in its own way. We help make explicit the assumptions and compromises needed to make each solution work.
Finding alignment through dialogue & structured process
Unlike other governance forums, the Owners’ Board should aspire to consensus on key decisions rather than relying on majority votes. The essence of staying together as a family – like any enduring partnership – is the belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This requires a shared foundation of beliefs about how to do business together.
Helping consensus emerge takes patience and diplomacy. We facilitate structured processes that allow all stakeholders to express their views and be heard. Our method includes selective use of interviews, surveys, financial data and relevant benchmarks from other families to add objectivity and rigor to discussions.
Designing the governance architecture
The Owners’ Board is ultimately responsible for the overall governance of the family’s assets. It must own the design of the “governance architecture” and ensure that it works as intended.
Family Constitutions and Charters capture the key aspects of the design, but these documents are often drafted to provide legal protections and easily gather dust. We make sure these documents stay alive, ensuring that key governance forums are activated and sustained. That involves setting best practice for preparation, conduct and reflection.
Aligning governance across complex structures
Families with multiple operating assets will inevitably have a holding company or portfolio board that includes external advisors. Family Offices tend to have their own governance. Individual operating businesses also have their own boards.
Clarifying how each of these boards co-exist and relate ‘upwards’ to the Owners’ Board – in real life, not just on paper – is an area in which we are often asked to help.
Supporting governance in times of transition
During generational transitions or changes in ownership structures, we help families review and design governance models that best suit their circumstances.
We ensure each forum has a clear mandate for which it becomes accountable, which may include:
An Investment Committee for a financial portfolio, delivering against a financial mandate .
A Nominating Committee to ensure family talent is deployed, evaluated and rewarded according to the policies laid out.
A Family Council that focuses on keeping the legacy alive, ensuring good communication, and early years next gen development.
An oversight board for philanthropic or community activities, helping to identify and deliver projects dear to the collective owners and family.
A Leadership Development Committee for supporting those with aspirations and capabilities to rise to senior roles in the business or governance.
Making the right board appointments
The composition of each governance forum is just as important as its mandate. Questions that often arise include “Which family members should sit on this forum, if any?” and “What sort of profile from outside the family would work best for us”?
We work to understand of the role of family in the governance, the particular skills and vision that family brings, and where there might be gaps. From there, should you decide to reach outside the family and bring in suitable external, non-family members, we can help.
We work as a trusted advisor to ensure the correct search process is followed, working with the most suitable search firm. We also act as a source of decision support for your selection. This often involves helping you prepare and onboard selections and ensuring good integration.
Improving board culture & effectiveness
We help boards to create the right dynamic; one where members can challenge, suggest, discuss and conclude. Our role is often one of coaching and feedback to individual or collective board members. However, we often ‘roll up our sleeves’ to ensure the right information is being presented and all participants are fully briefed ahead of a key meeting.
Providing practical owners’ board support
Whilst size and composition are important, the role of the Chair is key. Yet, Chairs often lack operational support to run an effective board.
We offer temporary support by adding an “Office to the Chair,” helping the Owners’ Board oversee implementation across the organisation. We play a coordination role, ensuring projects are on time, resources available and changes implemented.
This support function can also be permanent, ensuring that the board and family owners receive timely, accurate information and are well-prepared to make informed decisions when called upon.
Who we are
Independent strategic advisors to Owners
Acanthite Partners is an independent, specialist advisory firm dedicated to addressing the unique situations faced by family-owned groups. Our mission is to help families make the right decisions for their business and investments and protect their legacies for future generations.
We create lasting solutions, enabled by decades of experience and an intimate understanding of family dynamics.
CLIENT STORY
Transforming the governance framework for capital allocation
A fourth-generation family board member of a $10bn+ diversified conglomerate needed help tackling a long-standing governance challenge. For 15 years, the same six family members had sat on the top-level board – and the group had come to recognise the need for fresh ideas and new inspiration. In particular, they needed this layer of governance to focus much more on long-term capital allocation and less on the scrutiny of individual company operations.
Our partner began by working closely with the six family board members to clarify their aspirations for the future role of the holdings board. This involved grounding the discussion in the realities of the current portfolio.
Through a series of workshops, the group aligned on the ideal composition of the board – the proportion of family to non-family members and the skill sets required to meet the challenges the portfolio presented.