I recently had the good fortune to hear Dennis Jaffe and James Grubman, internationally known experts on family enterprises and wealth preservation, speak at an event in New York City. Participating on the panel as well was Abby Raphel, co-founder of The Redwood Initiative, an organization focused on family sustainability through wealth education.

Dr. Jaffe recently authored a research paper entitled Building a Hundred Year Family Enterprise. Too often family businesses stories are about those that don’t make it. There is more benefit though, in studying successful family enterprises. Jaffe uses the term ‘Generative Family’ to describe successful businesses that have sustained a family enterprise across generations. In his research he found seven qualities that characterize generative “enterprising” families that can trace their unity, shared core purpose and family capital over a century.

Dr. Jaffe has agreed to generously share his research paper. The seven qualities of a 100-Year Family Enterprise are listed on page 3. If you would like to receive a PDF of the paper, please send me your request by email to: info@thefamilybusinessleader.com.