Your Jungle,
Your Way,
Our Reason.
Running a company is like walking through a jungle at night. You cannot see far. There are lights in the distance, and most of them are the wrong light.
So only three questions really matter. This page is those three, one chapter each — with one firm answering them as we go.
Which light is yours?
Most companies describe themselves in a way that would fit anyone. It feels safe, and it is useless — you cannot decide anything with it.
Don't pick what you want to be. Find what you are already good at.
It is usually hiding in work you have already done. Look at your wins and ask what they have in common.
Like noticing you keep ending up on the same path, and realising it is the one you know best.
A 40-lawyer firm looked at its own files. Its best results all had the same shape: a family and a business tangled together, with a handover coming.
So: which of these sentences could only they say? Tap each one.
Now you have one sentence to judge things with.
Something new comes along. Ask one question: if we ignore this, does it hurt the thing we are trying to be best at?
Three real decisions. Your call first, then theirs.
A senior partner wants to start doing company takeovers. The fees are much higher.
They said no. Takeover work does not protect a single family business — and the sentence gave them a reason they could say out loud.
A rival firm relaunches itself as “innovation-led.”
Ignored. It changes nothing about protecting family businesses. Most competitor news is like this.
Family businesses are increasingly being sold to investors instead of passed down to children.
This one mattered. They widened the sentence: protecting a family business can also mean guiding a family through a good sale. The filter is not a wall — some things should get through.
The word we useBelief. One sentence saying what you are trying to be best at, and who for.
Which way do you walk?
You know the light now. You still cannot see the ground in front of you. So you need a few things you can check as you go.
Being best at something is never one skill.
It is a handful, working together. Three to five — few enough to remember, enough to be honest.
What protecting a family business across generations actually takes:
Each one needs a number, or you are guessing.
Two kinds. One that moves this week, so you can still change course. One that only proves it at the end, when changing course is too late.
Training for a race: miles you ran this week, versus your finishing time.
Take Foresight. Which number tells them it is working while they can still do something about it?
Reviews done this month. It moves every week, so it steers. The income split is the real proof — but you only see it a year later, which is too late to act on.
They track both, for all four. One to steer by, one to prove it.
Work on the one holding the rest back.
Not the easiest one, and not the one you enjoy. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Rated honestly, Trust was strong, Depth and Calm were middling, Foresight was weak. Which do they fix first?
Then plan the next three steps. Only three.
Not because three is tidy. Because finishing one shows you things you could not have known before — so step four would have been a guess.
Offer existing clients an early review of their handover plans
Get to know the children before they inherit the business
Become the name people cite — publish a yearly report, partner with accountants
Finish one and a new third appears. The view ahead stays three steps deep, forever.
The words we useStars, measures, waypoints. Stars for the handful of qualities, measures for their numbers, waypoints for the next three steps.
What is in the way?
Things will block you. You can clear them one at a time forever, or you can write down how you cleared them.
A fix solves today. A rule solves every time it happens again.
Including after you have forgotten why you started doing it — or after the person who worked it out has left.
“Try harder” is not a rule. It cannot be followed.
Three things blocked step 1. Each instruction below is useless as written — tap to see what they turned it into.
You can tell a good rule by three things.
Miss any one and it quietly stops being used.
The word we useHeuristic. It only means rule of thumb. We use it because that is what it is.