If you read the headlines coming from the 2020 World Economic Forum at Davos, you may start believing that public corporations have fundamentally changed their raison dâêtre: from creating value for shareholders to benefiting society-at-large. In our opinion, this conclusion is premature. We havenât seen real change yet, and we wonât without first transforming firmsâ performance measurement systems....
Many organizations aspire to have cultures that embrace data, analytics and AI, and other new technologies, but few make specific attempts to create such cultures. TD Wealth, the wealth management unit of Toronto-based TD Bank Group, is one organization that isnât content to think wishfully about this sort of cultural change. It created a program called WealthACTâfor âAccelerate Change through Technologyââto try to get senior and middle-level executives in the business unit excited about what technology can do for their business....
Power and control impact family businesses, just like any other enterprise. What makes the inevitable power and control struggles even more complex in a family business are the family dynamics that play a significant role in decision-making and succession planning. If family dynamics are not centered on a shared purpose, the result is often organizational friction and low performance. A common mission, high-trust relationships, and effective decision-making can help to bolster family-business performance, especially in todayâs uncertain business climate....
The performance edge family businesses have over their non-family business counterparts has been explained by their dogged pursuit of operational excellence. Family firms tend to take a long-term view of investments and relationships, stay in ownership control to do things their way, focus on persistent improvement and innovation, develop loyal stakeholder relationships, build key talent in select individuals, carry lower debt, and build greater financial stability....
