With the world on the cusp of the largest wealth transfer society has ever seen, there’s no time like the present to explore how venture building can be an exceptional tool for families to regenerate wealth, build and future-proof their empire, and train their Next Gen members to run it all in the best way possible.

Our key takeaways from a lively discussion between our panel of esteemed international Next Generation founders Irvan Kolonas, Lorin Gu and Dr. Maren Celine Schweizer, and moderated by Prof. Claudia Zeisberger, include:

👉 While European family businesses are often significantly older than their Asian family business counterparts (moving into their 5th generation and beyond in comparison to the more widespread transition to 2nd or 3rd generation in Asia today), the problems and struggles our speakers spoke of were not dissimilar, and it is beneficial to glean learnings from one to the other.

👉 It is essential for families to establish a robust framework that enables them to effectively share learnings across generations, and, when external professionals are consulted to facilitate this, it can help to alleviate the issues faced during the transfer of power across generations.

👉 Keeping the entrepreneurial spirit strong in the families can sometimes be difficult as early generations may think preserving the legacy business is of greater importance. Debunking this belief is beneficial for families, as encouraging entrepreneurship, particularly for younger generations, is a good platform for them to experience business management and operations - and even learn skills they would never have managed to otherwise - before they eventually take on leadership positions within the family business.

An immense thank you to Bank of Singapore, MING Labs and Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) for their efforts and support in putting together such a thought-provoking evening and to our wonderful moderator and panellists for sharing their own experiences and giving us so much food for thought.