The Catalonian Family Business Association (ASCEF) organized a conference in collaboration with Deloitte, entitled “Family Legacy vs. Legacy and Business Project“, which offered a more academic vision of the business family, as well as a view of the current situation of the country’s Family Office and its role in the management of companies.

Carles Garcia, professor IESE Business School, dissected the family business and its corporate governance from an academic point of view, pointing out that “if we seek to improve the company’s management and make it efficient, the bigger the companies, the more necessary it is to relied on a greater number of external members than family members“. He, nevertheless, wished to underscore that the family council is to be taken into account.

In this way, professor Garcia asserted that “a greater number of independent consultants contributes to a greater satisfaction of the council performance“. “It is the family who should bring in the company’s values and mission,” he pointed out, after suggesting that “from the third generation on, it is essential to teach these values to the new generations, so they endure over time“.

Throughout the conference professor Carles García reminded the three basic points to be considered by the business family: unity, commitment to business and development: “Without unity, we are only stakeholders, with more than that, we are a family. We cannot appreciate what we don’t know, when it is known, it is appreciated and it feels represented“. “Having valuable and responsible stakeholders is what we are more interested in, they should have a professional attitude at they do“, he commented in relation to the business family presence in the company.

Fernando Vázquez, Law Associate and Head of the Deloitte‘s Family Business Program, delivered the main conclusions about the FOMM Deloitte survey taken by administrators and coordinators of Family Offices in Spain. About these, he noted that most of them are located in Catalonia, where two generation coexists, most of them managing up to €150 million.

“Despite the apparent rise of the Asian market, 90% of investment by the Family Office in Spain is made geographically in North America and Europe“, Vázquez illustrated, who also explained that these investments rally on real estate (44%) and financial assets (32%).

Lastly, Ignasi Botet, consultant for CABOEL, member of ASCEF, explained his professional experience in the family business realm, particularly in their transition to Family Office. Regarding Family Offices’ management and organization, Botet reminded that “although there is not one method that stands out above the rest, all of them take Family Office as a risk diversification strategy, for it is, in fact, a matter of managing the family legacy long term“.

All the information about the lecture is available through the link provided on the web site’s private.