You love your father but some of his business practices don’t scale. The business is successful but outdated ways are holding it back. Innovation feels like betrayal when grandpa’s portrait watches every board meeting. And you can’t talk freely about this tension, not with employees who’ve been here 30 years, not with family members on the board, and definitely not at Christmas dinner.
Other 2nd/3rd gen leaders navigating the same tension: honoring legacy while demanding modernization.
Systems that professionalize operations: from dad's instinct to documented process, without family warfare.
Say what you can't at the family table. Process the complexity without judgment or advice to "just talk to dad."
Learn from families who've modernized successfully: digitized, systematized, and still thriving.
These aren’t features; they’re outcomes. What actually changes when you have peers navigating the same generational tension, frameworks that honor both legacy and necessity, and permission to admit it’s hard.
Replace handshakes with systems:
Document dad’s relational genius into processes your team can execute without him in the room.
This isn’t networking. It’s a 12-month transformation commitment for family business leaders serious about modernizing with peers who understand the complexity.
Your revenue range. Substantial but not enterprise bureaucracy.
Taking over or modernizing what parents built. That’s the tension.
You recognize transformation isn’t optional. Digital competitors won’t wait.
You control budget as family CEO. No procurement committee drama.
You want systems that work, not consultants with €2M strategy decks.