Your family company has been around for nearly a hundred years. It’s in its fourth generation. There are shareholders spread around the world – some are involved in the business, others are not. The family members who are involved in managing the business want to ensure it stays within family control. However, there are not enough family who are interested and/or able to manage all the business, and there isn’t one strand of the family who own enough shares to maintain control. What do you do?

I was recently asked to resolve a heated debate about the ‘correct’ way to internationalise a business. The debate had focused on the key point re markets. Specifically, I was asked whether it was not always the case that the first overseas venture would be where the biggest market was