Joline

Teaching Work Values to Children of Wealth

Greetings from Istanbul!

I’m just back from a family business conference in Istanbul. 70+ multi-generation families from across Turkey convened with the International Family Business Forum to discuss succession and wealth transfer. I gave a talk on preparing the next generation for these happenings and am still processing the the comments that were provoked by my session. I plan to report on it in a few days (when jet lag and brain function have sorted themselves out).

In the meantime, I thought I’d share this piece written by Paul Sullivan for the NYT last Saturday. He quoted me liberally and the piece has elicited strong response from families living through the issues he writes about and that I comment on, as well as from commentators who seem to think that helping ‘rich kids’ is an outrage.

Though I’m deeply concerned about the vast chasm between rich and poor in this country, scapegoating kids who are growing up with means doesn’t seem especially productive. Our job is to provide them with tools to deal with issues that are the unintended consequences of inheriting wealth, not to castigate them for their fate.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Learning From the the Mico and Macro Tugs on the Fashion Industry

Getting ready for our Fashion and Finance Retreat, I’m  paying attention to who’s saying what about fashion. So Vera Wang got my attention this week when she said:

“In my 40 years in fashion, I’ve never seen women scared to shop — at all price levels.” [Vera sells dresses at $2000 a pop, as well as a line for Kohls that offers dresses closer to $100 and under.]  “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said, referring to the future of prestigious labels.

The tension between the micro-economics of fashion (smart consumers rethinking their spending priorities) and the macro-economics of the industry (jobs, creativity, leadership, profits, etc.) is causing tremors in the world of fashion.  The size of the earthquake–and what it means to both consumers and investors will be one of the topics covered at the Retreat Oct. 9-11. I hope you’re as excited about it as we are.