I know that because I have been fortunate enough to spend countless hours learning at their feet. Ken and John, I hope this book brings your thinking to a new generation of family enterprise zealots, and I'll do my best to ensure it does. Your fingerprints are all over these pages.
I also need to tip my hat, in no particular order, to the colleagues and practitioners who have helped craft my thinking and enflame my passion for family enterprise. To the Dennis family for sharing your journey with me for the past two decades; thank you for the Four Rs as well as the Church and State framework. To the Urrea family, who have recently brought additional texture and sophistication to the Church and State approach to governance. To the Millers for their amazing work with the Four Cs framework… truly groundbreaking. To Professor Ivan Lansberg, whose eloquent portrayal of the Four Tests is timeless. To the pioneering Professor John Davis and late Renato Taiguiri, who gifted us such a sound foundation through the Three Circles paradigmatic framework. To my friend Professor Jose Liberti, who enlightened me on the four ways to capture value. To Jim Davis and his colleagues for introducing me and others to stewardship as a theory. To Jim Ethier for helping me understand what Governance Planning really means. And to Drew Everett, who helped me appreciate the meaning of Successors' Talent development. To the Lee family, for allowing me to understand the true meaning of sibling partnership. And to the many families who helped me understand the true meaning of long-term orientation and stewardship.
A separate acknowledgement to friends who have helped me more than they know. To Dr. Dennis Jaffe for his guidance along my trip to now. Dennis was instrumental in getting me started and keeping me going. It was he who provided the final push and the invaluable recommendation to Wiley. And to Caroline Coleman Bailey and her network at the innovative Premier Growth organization. And last but far from least, to Professors Eric Clinton and Catherine Faherty as well as their Irish family business community at Dublin City University. Much of what you will read in the pages that follow was tested for its final ‘proof of concept' with Eric's, Catherine's, and Caroline's learning communities.
To my friends in the professional services community, thank you for helping me to appreciate your important role more fully, and for helping me discover more than just the many moving parts of estate, wealth, and asset planning. In particular, I thank Bruce Hatcher from BDO Australia and Jonathan Flack and Jay Mattie from PwC US. Their passion for genuine understanding has motivated many advisors and subsequently helped countless business-owning families.
I also owe a ridiculously huge debt of gratitude to several people I have never actually met, but whose work I have long admired, “borrowed from,” and paraphrased in these pages. Specifically, to Dr. Ichak Adizes, whose understanding of life cycle is without peer; to Professor Emeritus Robert Kaplan and David Norton for sharing their Balanced Scorecard with me and the world; to Professor Sara Sarasvathy, whose work introducing effectual reasoning has made the complex simpler for so many of us; and to the global community of trust researchers whose work in understanding trust (within, between, and among teams of decision-making teams in family enterprises) underpins everything.
And finally, to my many colleagues at the institutions I have had the privilege to serve. To those who were with me at Oregon State University, Northeastern University in Boston, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Dublin City University, and at my alma mater, Bond University. And to other colleagues including Professors Tom Lumpkin, Clay Dibrell, Don Neubaum, and Scott Newbert, who have pushed and challenged me along my anything-but-typical academic journey. And to Catharina Jecklin and Anke Steinmeyer, two doctoral students at Bond University, who represent an exciting new generation of thinkers.
You are all responsible for the Continuity Model Generation. Indeed, these pages harness my intellectual restlessness, which you all have tolerated and nurtured, and for that I am deeply grateful.
Justin
Introduction to the Continuity Model Generation
This book is intentionally modelled on Wiley Publication's Business Model Generation, written by Alexander Osterwalder and Professor Yves Pigneur and co-created by an amazing crowd of 470 practitioners from 45 countries.
What is significant, and not widely comprehended, is that the Business Model Generation is actually about a movement… a generation. This movement has been insanely successful as it captured a generation that pined for, and subsequently related to, a refreshing way of thinking and acting. They evolved from the Business Plan Generation.
The Continuity Model Generation has morphed in a similar way. Seeking a refreshing approach, this generation of scholars and practitioners from across the globe evolved from the Succession Plan Generation.
For the Business Model Generation there are nine building blocks that form the basis for “a handy tool,” i.e. the Business Model Canvas.
For the Continuity Model Generation there are 6 robust meta-frameworks, made up of 21 stress-tested frameworks with a total of 87 dimensions that form the foundation for the development of 4 “essential for continuity” planning processes, each with 4 segments and a nuanced cornerstone concept. These combine to deliver a tool, which is also very handy. We, the continuity model generation, unashamedly call this the Continuity Canvas.
Welcome to the movement.
Illustration 1 21−6−4×4
Twenty-one frameworks, six meta-frameworks and four plans, each with four components… It all fits on a napkin!
Let the learning and creating begin…
Keystone Meta-Framework
Knowledge of this meta-framework's keystone, four theoretical approaches, two logics, and three circles will enable anyone to understand and interpret with some authority the complexity of the tripartite family, business, and ownership landscape as well as gain insight into how these areas function independently and interdependently.
Four Foundational Theoretical Approaches
Agency Theory
Agency theory explains so much of the world. Originating in arguments presented as early as 1932, agency theory describes what happens when owners appoint others to act on their behalf—or, in the theoretical jargon, when principals appoint agents. The core argument is that any organization, at some point, will reach a stage, due to growth or expansion, where the principal cannot do everything that needs to be done, so they must appoint someone to do some of the work. This eventuality brings about or facilitates a cost: the person, or agent, appointed by the principal to act on their behalf will require monitoring, which incurs agency costs, also known as monitoring costs. As a leader of a third-generation European family enterprise shared insightfully, “My sole job is to reduce agency costs.”
Broadly, then, the job of a leader is to put in place mechanisms in the organization to ensure that agents’ behavior is aligned with interests of the principals. This alignment is achieved through incentives and perquisites.
Importantly, agency costs occur throughout an organization. At the organization's head, agency costs appear when the owners appoint the board to act on their behalf. The board is monitored through measures such as the strategic planning process and other governance-related and regulatory
