Professionalising the family firm

In this INSEAD Knowledge podcast, Professor Morten Bennedsen, the Academic Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise at INSEAD, talks about how the experience of bringing in talent from outside the family can rejuvenate family firms. Professionalisation is “about having the right leadership skills at any level in the organisation and moving the family firm from a one-man band, from this famous creative person with very little corporate government structure to the full symphony orchestra” – including a CEO and the board – of a well-managed firm. Bennedsen views the process as the development of organisational structure that encompasses all the firm’s human resources towards a common goal, like an orchestra.