Family Business Director

May 23, 2022 Performance Measurement Special Topics

Peloton, Planet Fitness, and Family Business

Pedaling Too Close to the Sun

Think back to March 2020.  Many businesses and operations saw immediate stoppages and closures with no idea when they could restart. The fitness industry was no exception. Planet Fitness, the gym operator, completely shut down its locations and its stock plummeted. Peloton Interactive saw sales surge for its at-home exercise spin-bike and its stock soar. These two businesses entered very different seasons at the onset of the COVID-19 lockdowns and slowdown. Planet Fitness was facing a sudden and bitterly cold winter, while Peloton was spinning its way into summer.

We think there are three lessons that can prevent your family business from pedaling in place: understand what season your business is in, be prepared for slow-downs, and diversify prudently. Read more in this week’s post.

May 16, 2022 Performance Measurement Special Topics

Review of Key Economic Indicators for Family Businesses in Q1 2022

In this week’s post, we take a look at a few key macroeconomic trends that developed in the, shall we say, busy, first quarter of 2022. Between volatile equity markets, mounting global geopolitical tensions, raging inflation, and increasing interest rates, a lot went on in the year’s first quarter from a macro perspective.

We hope that this blog post cuts through some of the “noise” and provides our readers with a concise and unbiased look at economic trends from the first quarter of 2022. 

May 9, 2022 Planning & Strategy

Your Family’s Guide for the Next 100 Years

How your family business thinks about success is important. James Hughes, author of Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family poses a question early on in his book: Can a family successfully preserve its wealth for more than one hundred years or for at least four generations? It’s a compelling question and a compelling book.

Hughes is now a retired sixth-generation counselor-at-law, prolific author, and renowned multi-generation family meeting facilitator. He has advised numerous wealthy families on how to maintain and grow their wealth over time. Hughes views “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” plaguing family businesses not as destiny but as a cycle family businesses can overcome with thoughtful practices and patience over many years. In this week’s post, we review his very insightful and helpful book.

May 2, 2022 Planning & Strategy

Three Reasons to Hold Cash on the Family Business Balance Sheet

For one weekend a year, the spotlight of the financial world shifts from New York to Nebraska. The annual meeting of the Berkshire Hathaway company has developed a cult following among shareholders and financial journalists alike. A compound annual return of 20% over 55 years (!) will do that for you.

The consummate value investor, Warren Buffett, attributed the growing cash stockpile to an absence of compelling investment opportunities. Better to hold cash than make bad investments, after all.  Market volatility in the early months of 2022 did loosen the purse strings a bit as Berkshire made a large acquisition and built large positions in three publicly traded companies. All told, the first quarter investing activity drew cash down to approximately $105 billion, which is still enough to cover payroll for a while.

Mr. Buffett certainly doesn’t need us to remind him of the perils of “lazy capital” on the corporate balance sheet – the yearend cash stash represented approximately 20% of Berkshire’s overall market capitalization. Giving Mr. Buffett the benefit of the doubt (which he has probably earned at this point in his career), are there any good reasons for family businesses to hold some cash in reserve? In this week’s post, we share our view of the three potential benefits to keeping some cash on the balance sheet.

April 25, 2022 Planning & Strategy

How to Approach a Target and Perform Initial Due Diligence

This post originally appeared as an article in a recent Mercer Capital publication, The Transaction Advisory Update, regarding buy-side considerations in transactions for middle market companies. In this post, we summarize some practical considerations for approaching and vetting an identified target.

April 18, 2022 Special Topics

Would Elon Musk Want to Buy Your Family Business?

Who said: “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it”?

If you answered “Elon Musk,” you’d be right. His potential acquisition of Twitter has been all over the financial press of late.

In this week’s Family Business Director post, we ask “What can your family business learn from the Elon Musk/Twitter saga”? There are at least two lessons to be learned. Read more in this week’s post.

April 12, 2022 Shareholder Engagement Shareholder Liquidity

Is Redemption a Four-Letter Word?

As recently noted in the Wall Street Journal, large public companies are announcing share repurchase programs at a record pace.  Like many issues, what is straightforward for public companies becomes a bit more complicated for family businesses.  Two factors in particular increase the degree of difficulty for family businesses.  First, the motivation for redemptions can be complicated by personal relationships.  Second, price is not a given as it is for public companies. We discuss both of these in this week’s post.

April 4, 2022 Special Topics

Practical Considerations for Operating in an Inflationary Environment

In recent months, inflation has overtaken labor market measures as the most headline-grabbing macroeconomic indicator in the financial press. Inflation typically moves the needle more than other economic measures because of its effects not only on businesses of all sizes but also on consumers. The current inflationary environment has contributed to shifts in consumer behavior thus far in 2022, and it is important that family businesses build responses to changing consumer behavior into their budgeting and forecasting processes. In this week’s post, we take a look at key considerations family businesses should be thinking about in their response to the current inflationary environment.

March 28, 2022 Planning & Strategy

Nine Characteristics of Successful Family Wealth Plans

Recently we had the opportunity to attend (virtually) the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Foundation 24th Annual Estate, Tax, Legal & Financial Planning Seminar.  This year’s keynote speaker was Pamela Lucina, Chief Fiduciary Officer and head of the Trust & Advisory practice for Northern Trust Wealth Management, one of the country’s largest trust companies.  Her keynote presentation highlighted the characteristics of successful families and provided practical strategies to avoid mistakes commonly seen in the administration of multigenerational wealth plans and trust structures. In this week’s post, we summarize Ms. Lucina’s nine key observations.

March 21, 2022 Planning & Strategy

Identifying Acquisition Targets and Assessing Strategic Fit

This week, we welcome Tim Lee to the Family Business Director blog. This post originally appeared as an article in a recent Mercer Capital publication, The Transaction Advisory Update. Many family businesses will find the post interesting because it provides touch points and practicalities for identifying viable merger and acquisition targets and assessing strategic fit.