Family Enterprise Sustainability Index

 

Frequently Asked Questions

The Family Enterprise Sustainability Index provides families that share assets (a business, real estate, financial assets, foundation, family office) with a way to understand and prepare for their future. It helps families to assess their current preparation along five dimensions and to look forward and anticipate what they will need as their journey continues. Each family member takes the survey confidentially, and all the responses are mapped to provide a composite of the total family view.  

 

Why the Index? 

  • Our goal is to provide families with a roadmap to achieving sustainability for their enterprise. We use the survey as a tool to help families better understand how to: 

    • Encourage review and development of behaviors that will increase the likelihood of enhancing the full range of family resources – financial, human, social, and spiritual

    • Lay the groundwork for the family to create a strategic plan to sustain its enterprise across multiple generations

 

Who should complete the Index? 

  • Every member of the family above a certain age (to be determined by the family) should take the survey to provide a complete picture of the family’s sense of its sustainability. The more members that complete the survey, the more complete the picture.

 

What is the process of taking the survey?

  • Each member will receive an email link to complete the survey, which takes 20-40 minutes to complete. It is best to complete it in one sitting.

  • The survey is comprised of a series of questions and statements. Members will be asked to answer each question based on how relevant it is to the current and future circumstances of the family enterprise from their unique perspective.

 

How much time should I anticipate to complete the survey? 

  • It typically takes about 20-40 minutes to complete the survey, and is ideally completed in one sitting. 

 

Is the Index anonymous?

  • When taken, the survey will ask for identifying information as well as the email address of the persons taking it; however, the data is aggregated and presented in a manner that protects individual results.

 

How will the results be shared? 

  • After the index is completed by all family members, the data is then aggregated and analyzed. The family may choose to have a member of the Relative Solutions team present the data in an anonymous fashion for those members who took the survey. The family will also receive the presentation in .pdf form after the presentation.     

 

What happens after the results are shared?

  • The next steps are up to you! While the results are concrete and identify gaps in the current state and future state of the family enterprise, knowledge of individual family members, family culture, capacity, and interest in the work vary by family. As such, most families use these results in combination with other methods to develop a specific roadmap of the work ahead. They may do this in-house or with an outside advisor.

  • Should you choose, the results may provide a great starting point for work with consultants at Relative Solutions.