History

For more than thirty years, the Family Firm Institute (FFI) has been engaged in educating, connecting, and inspiring professionals who serve family enterprises. FFI is the leading association worldwide for family enterprise professionals and the organization of choice for the advisers, consultants, educators, and researchers who help perpetuate trans-generational family business enterprise. In adopting a multidisciplinary and global perspective, FFI understands family enterprise as a fundamental driver of global economic growth, prosperity, and stability.

For its global network of professionals, educators, researchers, and family enterprise members, FFI provides opportunities to participate in multidisciplinary educational programs and earn professional designations; enables collaboration at conferences, seminars, and online; and creates a single space for cross-pollination of ideas, expertise, and perspectives to further the field of family enterprise.

While families have been in business for most of recorded history, a dedicated field of family business is relatively new. For example, formal research devoted to family business only emerged in the 20th century, and it was only through the vision of pioneering thinkers such as Barbara Hollander and Richard Beckhard that a multidisciplinary field was established with the founding of the Family Firm Institute in 1986.