Advising Families

John A. Davis advises the world’s leading families on the significant issues they face as they build multigenerational family enterprises.

For nearly four decades, his insights, lectures, and writing have helped to develop leaders, professionalize businesses, strengthen families, build family wealth, and pass enterprises from one generation to the next.

Trained in management, psychology, and economics, Professor Davis has advised multigenerational families from over 65 countries, and is a globally recognized authority on family business, family wealth, leadership and succession. He is recognized as one of America’s leading wealth advisors. In 1989, Professor Davis founded Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, a highly specialized advisory, education and research organization. It is dedicated to helping multigenerational family enterprises globally to achieve meaningful and lasting success.

Professor Davis’ clients are families of substantial wealth who own leading companies and family offices around the world. These globally minded, socially responsible, high-performing families seek Professor Davis’ advisory services on a range of complex challenges, such as those listed below.

Advisory Areas

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Family Enterprise Strategy

  • Multigenerational sustainability of the family enterprise
  • Architecting and positioning the family enterprise for success
  • Identifying the family’s highest and best use in the family enterprise
  • Leadership and succession of the entire family enterprise
  • Governance of the entire family enterprise

Family Office and Family Wealth

  • Family Office performance
  • Wealth building approaches
  • Making the right bets
  • Developing wealth creators

Family Strategy

  • Family success and sustainability
  • Social impact and philanthropic strategies
  • Family unity, teamwork, and relationship building
  • Repairing family conflicts and wounds

Family Business

  • Organizational performance of the family business
  • Profitable growth of the family business(es)
  • Holding company strategy
  • Effective leadership, governance, and management
  • Building the bench: family and non-family talent strategy
  • Family work relationships
  • Selling the family business

Ownership Strategy

  • Options for ownership structure including external capital
  • Shareholder buyouts
  • Shareholder agreements and governance
  • Ownership succession
  • Preparing the next generation for ownership

Family Talent

  • Preparing the next generation
  • Developing productive, healthy family members
  • Developing talent in all roles in the family enterprise, including wealth creators, active owners, board members, entrepreneurs, and leaders
  • Designing your life
  • Letting go