Who We Are
The Delaware Valley Family Business Center exists to help business families thrive—today and through the generations.
Our Mission
Family-owned businesses are the backbone of the American economy, representing over 60% of U.S. companies and employing the majority of the workforce. Yet only about 30% of family businesses survive into the second generation, and just 12% make it to the third generation.
These statistics don't reflect a lack of business capability—they reflect the unique challenges of managing the intersection between family and business. When family dynamics clash with business needs, even the most successful companies can falter.
We founded the Delaware Valley Family Business Center on a simple belief: with the right guidance, structures, and support, family businesses can outperform their non-family counterparts while strengthening family bonds across generations.
Our Approach
What sets us apart is our comprehensive understanding that success in family business requires excellence in three distinct but interconnected areas:
1. Family Excellence
Healthy family relationships aren't just a nice-to-have—they're essential for sustainable business success. We help families develop communication skills, establish governance structures like family councils, and create policies that respect both business needs and family values. Our work includes facilitating family meetings, coaching next-generation leaders, and helping families navigate difficult conversations with care and professionalism.
2. Business Excellence
Profitability and professional management are non-negotiable. We bring rigorous business discipline to help families implement strategic planning processes, establish accountability systems, and make tough business decisions separate from family considerations. We help families transition from founder-driven management to professional governance structures that can sustain success across generations.
3. Ownership Excellence
As ownership spreads across generations and family branches, shareholder alignment becomes critical. We educate ownership groups about their responsibilities, create structures for effective ownership governance, and help align expectations about dividends, reinvestment, and long-term strategy. Well-prepared ownership groups become advocates for the business rather than sources of conflict.
This three-dimensional approach—addressing family, business, and ownership simultaneously—enables families to build companies that are both highly profitable and deeply nurturing.
Our Expertise
Our team brings decades of combined experience working with family-owned businesses across industries and generations. We understand family business not just as consultants, but as practitioners who have lived and breathed these challenges.
Our areas of deep expertise include:
- Succession Planning: Developing comprehensive transition plans that address leadership, ownership, and family dynamics
- Family Governance: Creating family councils, family constitutions, and governance structures that scale with family complexity
- Conflict Resolution: Facilitating difficult conversations and mediating family business disputes with professionalism and confidentiality
- Next Generation Development: Preparing rising leaders for their roles through mentoring, education, and structured development programs
- Strategic Planning: Helping families align on long-term vision and create actionable strategic plans
- Board Development: Establishing and strengthening boards of directors and advisory boards
- Compensation Systems: Designing fair compensation structures that work for both family and non-family employees
- Shareholder Education: Building ownership competence and alignment across generations
Our Philosophy
We believe every family business has the potential to become both remarkably nurturing for the family and unusually profitable as a company. This isn't idealism—it's what we've seen happen when families commit to intentional planning and professional development.
Our work is grounded in several core convictions:
- Challenges are predictable: Most family business problems aren't unique—they're normal developmental stages. Recognizing patterns helps families address issues proactively.
- Structure enables freedom: Clear governance structures, policies, and processes don't constrain families—they create freedom for both business success and family harmony.
- Communication is learnable: Families can develop the skills to have productive conversations about money, leadership, and succession, even if those conversations have been difficult in the past.
- Peer learning is powerful: Family business leaders benefit enormously from connecting with others who understand their unique challenges. Isolation increases risk.
- Next generation matters: Investing in the development of rising leaders isn't optional—it's essential for continuity and renewal.
- Professional help accelerates success: Just as businesses hire experts for legal, financial, and technical matters, bringing in family business expertise accelerates progress and prevents costly mistakes.
Our Commitment to You
When you work with the Delaware Valley Family Business Center, you gain a trusted partner who understands that your family business is about more than quarterly earnings—it's about legacy, values, and creating opportunity for generations to come.
We commit to:
- Maintaining absolute confidentiality in all our work with your family
- Customizing our approach to your unique situation rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions
- Challenging you with honest feedback while respecting your family's values and relationships
- Providing education and frameworks that empower you to make your own best decisions
- Celebrating your successes and supporting you through challenges
- Bringing the highest standards of professionalism to every engagement
Your family business represents years of hard work, sacrifice, and achievement. We're honored to help you build on that foundation and create a legacy that thrives for generations to come.