recycling recommendations. With every story you hear the good and the bad – and join the conversation with your ideas on how to make it better. Our Footprint Chronicles aligns our core values with the way we run our business. That has built customer loyalty and our market success” (FBN booklet, 2015). Putting the planet first and doing the right things for the planet has allowed to do good for the business. The business is now certified as a B-Corp, which relates to benefit corporations committed to creating public benefit and sustainable value in addition to generating profit.
Conclusion While the family enterprise features make them more open to articulate and commit to purpose – resilience, patient capital, values-centered, stewardship, altruism, entrepreneurial spirit and intergenerational vision – other organizations can build on their example in their purpose journey. This journey is not meant to be exempt from difficulties (intergenerational tensions, ownership dispersion in later generations, lack of leadership commitment and resistance to change…) whatever the type of organisation. One of the keys for success lies in three factors: the process of shaping the dream in a way that is inclusive of all family stakeholders, committed leadership, and the right governance to realising it. Purpose becomes therefore a real driver for all to contribute to continuity. The current global momentum of consciousness on purpose is an opportunity for all organizations to make a systemic change for good. In “Through the Looking Glass” Alice was told by the White Queen that she remembers only the future. After all, would purpose-driven organisations be remembered as what the future holds for capitalism? Dr. Neus Feliu is a consultant, researcher and educator in the area of family enterprises. She is a partner at Lansberg, Gersick & Associates LLC, a global professional advisory firm supporting the world’s leading family enterprises. Neus has developed an expertise in corporate and family business governance, specializing in large Latin American and European Family Businesses. Dr. Rania Labaki is Associate Professor of Management at EDHEC Business School and Director of the EDHEC Family Business Centre (France). Among her active roles internationally, she is board member of IFERA, advisor at Lansberg Gersick & Associates and head of the academic committee of FBN France.
51 PROFESSIONAL INSIGHT
