Family Governance Workshops
Learning Through Real Governance Decisions
Built around real family governance case studies, our workshops create a structured environment for exploring complex decisions before facing them in practice.
Dr Nicholas Schwarz
Founder and CEO
of The Cecily Group
Our Approach
The workshop methodology was developed through Dr Nicholas Schwarz‘s research and advisory work in family governance and succession. It combines three complementary elements:
The approach combines three elements.
- First, participants analyse real governance decisions made by family businesses facing succession, ownership, and leadership challenges.
- Second, these discussions are connected to practical governance frameworks developed by The Cecily Group, including the Four Abundances and the Family Council Canvas.
- Finally, participants return to their own family or organisation through structured reflection exercises that connect the case studies to their current governance questions.
The objective is to understand which structure protects which priorities, and what compromises every governance decision inevitably creates.
Why Case Studies?
Governance frameworks can explain how different structures work. They cannot, however, determine which structure is right for a particular family.
Every governance system reflects a series of choices about priorities, values, relationships and long-term objectives. Case studies make those choices visible by showing how different families responded to similar challenges.
Case studies provide something that few governance discussions can: the benefit of hindsight. Participants see how decisions about ownership, leadership, succession, and stewardship unfolded over years or even decades. They examine not only what worked, but also the opportunities that were sacrificed and the tensions that remained unresolved.
Participants begin to evaluate which trade-offs best reflect their own family’s circumstances. Only afterwards do they return to their own situation.
This progression — from observation to comparison to reflection — creates a different type of conversation. Participants begin asking: What is our current structure protecting, and is that still what we want?
The Case Study Series
The featured case studies examine governance decisions that influenced continuity, ownership, leadership, and stewardship. They illustrate how different families responded to similar governance questions, the priorities they chose to protect, and the long-term consequences of those choices.
Recent case studies include:
A Case Study: The Kwok Succession
From a trading business, Kwok Tak-seng built Sun Hung Kai Properties into one of Hong Kong's largest property developers, combining long-term ownership with developments that became closely linked to the city's expanding transport infrastructure and urban growth.
A Case Study: The Barclay Twins’ Succession
Despite sharing the famous surname, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay were unrelated to the Barclays banking family. They built their fortune independently, beginning with a small building and decorating business in London. Over the following five decades, they transformed it into one of Britain’s largest privately owned business empires, spanning premium media, retail, luxury hospitality and real estate. Their portfolio eventually included Telegraph Media Group, The Very Group, The Ritz London, and a network of holding companies and offshore trusts.
A Case Study: The Li Succession
For many business families, succession is treated as the moment when leadership changes hands. The Li family approached it differently. Years before Li Ka-shing retired, the foundations of the next generation's governance were established …
A Case Study: The Ambani Succession
Few family enterprises illustrate the long-term consequences of succession design as clearly as Reliance Industries. Built by Dhirubhai Ambani from a small trading operation into one of the world's largest integrated conglomerates, Reliance became …
A Case Study: The Rockefeller Succession
The Rockefeller saga began with a young bookkeeper in Cleveland who developed a reputation for precision, discipline, and unusual attention to capital allocation. John D. Rockefeller Sr. was not born into inherited wealth. His …
A Case Study: The Sainsbury Succession
For more than a century, the J Sainsbury plc family represented one of the strongest examples of dynastic retail stewardship in Britain. Generations of Sainsburys expanded a Victorian dairy shop into a national institution …
What Families Can Learn
Throughout the workshop, the discussion remains centred on the featured family. Participants are supported by structured reflection frameworks, derived from our Family Council Canvas methodology, which help them explore their own governance questions privately.
By the end of the session, participants have usually identified the governance conversation their family needs to have next and gained a clearer understanding of why it matters.
Participants are never expected to disclose confidential family matters. Reflection takes place through structured frameworks that can be completed privately.
Upcoming Workshops
Our signature workshops bring together family business owners, family office professionals, advisers, lawyers, trustees, and members of the next generation.
Each workshop begins with carefully selected case studies that illustrate some of the most important governance questions families encounter. Participants analyse these questions through our governance framework before exploring practical tools such as the Family Council Canvas, placing governance structures within the context of family values, priorities, and long-term stewardship.
Bespoke Workshops
Many organisations face governance questions that require more than a standard workshop.
We design private programmes around the governance challenges identified by the participating family or organisation. We select historical examples that address comparable tensions and analyse them alongside contemporary governance approaches.
Bespoke workshops allow participants to evaluate governance solutions that are relevant to their own circumstances, understand their long-term consequences, and assess which approaches are most appropriate for their organisation with the benefit of hindsight.
Start the Conversation
Every governance structure tells a story about what a family chose to protect. Our workshops help families understand those stories before writing their own. Whether you would like to join one of our signature workshops or discuss a bespoke programme, we would be pleased to explore the governance questions most relevant to your family or organisation.
If you would like to take part, please let us know by completing the form below or contacting us directly at nicholas@thececilygroup.com.