Dr Dennis Jaffe, a member of Wise Counsel Research, is a San Francisco-based advisor to families about family business, governance, wealth and philanthropy. He is the author of Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises; Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations; Stewardship in your Family Enterprise: Developing Responsible Family Leadership Across Generations, as well as Working With the Ones You Love. His global insights have led to teaching or consulting engagements in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. The Family Firm Institute awarded him the 2017 International Award for service, and in 2005 he received the Beckhard Award for service to the field. In 2020 he was awarded a special commendation as an individual thought leader in the field of wealth management by the Family Wealth Report. He has a BA degree in Philosophy, MA in Management, and Ph.D. in sociology, all from Yale University, and professor emeritus of organizational systems and psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I always had a kind of rhythm; I was a professor… My model of being a professor was not just to teach students it was to reach out in the world. So, I’ve always had kind of a business at home and my wife and I worked together some early in our careers and then she does leadership work and I do family business work. And so, we have different floors of our house. But the challenges that I had to overcome I think are in the academic world in research for research’s sake and there’s kind of a lack, not enough interest in people that are actually teaching and people that are going out in the world to make a difference”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Good to Great Book 2) Book by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t Book by Jim Collins
- In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies Book by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman
- Chris Argyris Books
- Peter M. Senge Books
Favourite Quote:
“go slow to go fast.”
Recommended Online Resources:
- Business schools online resources
- Family Business Network is the world’s leading organization of business families. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Lausanne, FBN is a federation of Member Associations spanning 65 countries. A vibrant community, FBN brings together 4,000 business families – encompassing 16,000 individuals of which 6,400 are Next Generation – through 750 annual events.
- Business Families Foundation – Family Enterprise Foundation promotes family business learning and family enterprise success through specialized courses, events and learning tools
- Fambiz – The premier resource for family business executives featuring the latest family business news and research articles from the leading universities and business publications
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“be thoughtful, to seek out other people. We have not talked about how entrepreneurship is not an individual behaviour it’s a way of building a culture and building a community. And I think that entrepreneurs have to build a community of people rather than think it’s my idea and I am going to do it on my own and that the other people are just going to come in and help me do my idea. Those that are community builders, those that build a team, those that bring in other people those are the people that are successful”…[Listen for More]
More About Dennis Jaffe:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“If you never want to be criticized, for goodness’ sake don’t do anything new.” Jeff Bezos
Other Quotes From the Chat with Dennis Jaffe:
- “I don’t think you want to shortcut the learning curve. Yes, if you want to get your business profitable there are things you can do as a product and getting it out. Life is about experience and you can’t get a handy book of lessons and do it. You really have to develop your personal experience”
- “two of the secrets that come up over and over again are transparency and not holding back but really sharing what you know if you are the owner or if you are the leader with the other people in the family, with the other people in the business. And then being inclusive and listening to that…And it means listening to people it doesn’t mean giving everybody a vote it doesn’t mean not using your intuition but it means using your intuition with other people… I think experimenting and trying things out as the third one. Being able to say let’s see, let’s try this and see what happens”
- “go slow to go fast. Instead of trying to rush off and get something done to really listen to other people, to listen to yourself, to do the basic work and really do something that’s really strong and thorough rather than just rushing ahead. And this goes against what some people say well go fast and break things and ready fire aim and things like that”
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