Family Business and External Directors

last Wednesday I completed a series of talks for the Australian Institute of Company Directors on the topic of the benefits Family Business engaging external non family directors.

The session last Wednesday included Chris Stillwell, the Chairman of the Stillwell Motor Group and Adele Levinge , second generation director at the Dennis Group. Both presented their family business story and highlighted value that external directors added to their business.

Their stories reinforced the strength of family business in Australia and highlighted that many are operated to the highest professional standard.

The key message from their presentations was that external directors bring an independent and different business insights to the business. Often family members are too close to the business and get caught in the daily grind of running a business and they know only one way of doing things.

No one has a mortgage of smart thinking. An external director should be able to ask the hard or challenging questions and bring new experience and wisdom to the board table. They must respect confidentiality, act as mentors to the younger family board members and add to the diversity of the skills of the group.

Now that I have restarted this blog, I will detail some of the key points over the next few weeks on the AICD presentations.

I believe that family business boards are there to be custodians for future generations and

Everyone needs to be held accountable.