Back-to-School Business Is Booming!
Spending on K-12 and back-to-college shopping is expected to hit a record $147 billion this year, fueled in part by a new marketing innovation: AI-powered wish lists. Target reports a 50% jump in shoppers building lists, with more than double the items added compared to last year (WSJ, 8/21/26).
We wish there was a similar annual emphasis encouraging business-owning families to renew their commitment to learning and education as a family practice.
Why Business-Owning Families Go “Back-to-School”
To flourish across generations, business-owning families embrace continuing education. “Many people think of learning as something that happens only in class (or, maybe, by Zoom) in the context of formal educational programs. One of the most important developments in the field of family wealth in the last decade is the realization that families who succeed over time do not limit their understanding of learning; instead, they make conscious choices to become learning organizations.” (Tom McCullough and Keith Whitaker, Wealth of Wisdom: Top Practices for Wealthy Families and Their Advisors, 2022, p. 67)
A Thoughtful Structure for Family Learning: The Five Family Capitals
How do wealthy families approach continuous family learning? There are many possible approaches to this, but many families in recent years have structured their ongoing educational practices around the five types of “family capital.”
Financial Capital
The term “capital” immediately brings to mind money and financial management. And addressing a lack of knowledge about ownership is an important dimension of family learning. On this topic see Own It! How to Develop a Family Enterprise Owner’s Mindset at Every Age by Wendy Sage-Hayward, Gaia Marchisio, and Barbara Dartt (Palgrave, 2022), which was written “to advance the claim that ownership is a critical role in a family enterprise which needs to be intentionally and strategically developed.” So true! Try this: This fall, ask each family member to write, in one sentence, what they believe their role and responsibility is as an owner. Compare notes as a family.
Yet there are also many nonfinancial sources of value in business-owning families. Shared financial capital alone may not be sufficient to unite a family in common purpose, shared learning, and human flourishing over generations. In fact, it is a family’s intangible assets, rather than its tangible assets, which are the foundation of its fortune. For this reason, business-owning families also develop four nonfinancial capitals. These labels and descriptions are drawn from chapter two of Dennis T. Jaffe’s book Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises (Wiley, 2020).
Legacy Capital
“Legacy (sometimes called “spiritual”) capital arises when the family celebrates and renews the values and inspiration that created its family wealth … Family governance often begins by defining the family legacy and then having the successors ask how they can further this. What will we do to fulfill our responsibility for wise and thoughtful use of what they have given us?” – Jaffe, p. 28.There are rich lessons and resources to be mined from your family business founders’ journey. Try this: At your next family gathering, invite an elder to share the story of a decision that shaped the business. Invite the rising generation to reflect on what they would add to that legacy.
Relationship Capital
The family also invests in itself through the development of active, caring, fair, and harmonious family relationships. … governance activities include ways to develop positive and caring family bonds. Families who take this seriously might make time to address four profound questions developed by Ellen Perry:
- What can I do more of that makes you feel close to me?
- What can I do less of that makes you lean out emotionally?
- What do you wish I understood more about who you are or what you value?
- What are your favorite stories from childhood and why?
Perry suggests addressing the questions in pairs or small groups of family members. “Strategies and practices that support a family’s ability to engage with one another in deep and meaningful conversations can help them move ahead with more confidence and clarity. That usually involves listening to one another better, empathizing more, learning new things, and evolving personally and as a family. Sounds pretty basic! But deeper understanding, empathy, and connection require forethought, skills, good facilitation, and dollops of patience and good intentions to human improvement and family well-being.” (Wealth of Wisdom, p. 3)
Human Capital
“Family members develop their individual capabilities in each generation. The family is a community designed to develop the skills and character of every family member.” – Jaffe, p. 28.
This can be hard to talk about. But frankly, many successful founders of a family business fret privately about how inherited wealth can undermine good character development and strong life purpose in the rising generation(s). We would simply note here that developing human capital can look a lot like good corporate leadership development and traditional EAP, but it can also involve addressing deeply sensitive personal issues like purposelessness, entitlement, substance misuse, and addiction. Try this: Give each family member, regardless of age or role in the business, an individual development goal for the year – and check in on it as a family, not just as employees.
Social Capital
“Social capital refers to how the family’s mission is expressed in the wider community. Family governance creates policies and goals for family innovation in ways that encourage family members to help the family enterprise enter new types of business and wealth creation. It also involves giving back to the community through philanthropy and social investment.” – Jaffe, p. 29.
Our deep background and experience in family philanthropy enables us to guide business-owning families with philanthropic strategy, from choosing area(s) of focus to developing theories of change and assessing outcomes in order to know how you’ve made a positive difference in your community quality of life. In this regard we are reminded of Proverbs 11:10, “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.” Try this: As a family, begin to explore one cause or community need you may want to address together this year.
Putting It All Together
Business-owning families addressing all five types of family capital experience many benefits, including:
- Understanding the deeper meaning and purpose of family wealth
- Developing competent oversight of family financial resources
- Building self-esteem and identity independent of having money
- Generating respect and trust through regular communication
- Involving family members in service and philanthropy
Learning to Work with Professional Advisors
One additional type of family learning involves learning to work productively with professional advisors. These typically involve accountants, tax advisors, estate planners, attorneys, financial advisors, and leadership coaches. In addition, we offer professional facilitation services to help ensure that your family meetings are well planned, well led, productive, and enjoyable. Which of the five types of family capital need more attention at this time? Contact us if we can be of service. We are here to help your family steward its business and relationships in ways that promote human flourishing across generations.
