Writing
Essays and notes on judgment, responsibility and stewardship when decisions carry lasting consequences.
What deserves to continue across generations?
How successors can decide whether inherited commitments still serve the family’s purpose, and what continuing or changing them would mean for those involved.
Read essay →Preparing future owners to decide together
How future owners can practise making decisions together and following through, even when they would have chosen differently.
Read note →Fairness in a family is not proved by making every role look the same.
Why different business roles can be reasonable—and why authority at work does not automatically give someone the final say in other family decisions.
Read essay →What another investor’s participation tells a family
Why an investment that suits an experienced investor may not suit the family—and what the family should assess before investing alongside them.
Read note →When reinvestment and distributions compete
Why a strong reinvestment case does not settle the dividend decision—and why an owner’s income needs and wish to move wealth out of the business may call for different responses.
Read essay →Responsible family ownership does not require every member to become an investment professional.
How family owners can rely on professional expertise while understanding the decisions they are responsible for and respecting the boundaries of their roles.
Read note →A succession plan cannot do the work of preparing the next generation
How structured learning and practice in family decisions can strengthen judgment among both future owners and family members already carrying responsibility.
Read essay →Recognition tells observers what an organisation appears to value.
How recognition shows people what an organisation values and rewards—and how what gets noticed can shape future behaviour.
Read note →A strong performance can justify a larger role without proving readiness for it.
How a strong performance can justify a larger role—and why some questions about readiness can only be answered once the person steps into it.
Read essay →Abundant capital can make a second attempt easier without making the lesson from the first attempt clearer.
How abundant capital can create another chance—and why a better result still requires us to ask what changed between attempts, what was learned from the first, and which of those differences actually mattered.
Read note →When capital is abundant, the harder questions often lie beyond funding.
Why abundant capital can make funding easy while the consequences of a commitment extend beyond the original allocation of capital.
Read essay →Delegation can be responsible. Abdication can be obvious—or hidden within a sound process.
A distinction between responsible delegation, simple abdication and disguised abdication that can hide within a sound process.
Read note →A decision can benefit from good advice and still be weakly owned.
Why strong specialist advice can still leave the hardest part of a decision unresolved: weighing the trade-offs and owning the choice.
Read essay →What does it take to remain correctable?
What helps us keep examining a view we prefer without giving up conviction or responsibility for the decision.
Read note →The more important the room, the more carefully disagreement travels.
Why can a decision-maker become harder to correct even as the information around them improves?
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