Facilitating Family Enterprise Resilience and Performance
As family business governance and leadership advisor, I act as an independent partner for medium to large family-owned companies in their governance, strategy and transformation projects to stay fit for the future.
Building on my rich, diverse and international experience over the last 20 years , I have developed in depth complementary skills, in particular legal and governance expertise, strong business & strategic acumen as well as a deep understanding of culture and relationships at leadership and ownership levels.
As a member of the 5th generation of two former family businesses, I also have first-hand experience in the complex world of FB. At my generation, we continue to undertake joint development and investment projects through our own family structure.
Sophie Cuendet du Roy
Services to accompany you
In my work I support shareholders, board of directors and leadership teams to tailor their organization to the needs of their family and the changing environment.
All my services aim at allowing global family enterprise alignment within and across each level – Family, Board and C-suite – including
Purpose & vision definition
Ownership, impact & sustainability strategy
Family governance and processes, both hard (structures and processes) and soft (group dynamics, leadership and communication culture)
Succession planning and transmission process
Board efficiency
Leadership culture alignment at C-Level
Family, Board & C-Level alignment
Purpose, vision and governance setting
Investment strategy definition
Skills include:
Mission, vision & strategy setting
Leadership, culture & systems resilience to drive transformation and performance
Legal, compliance and risk management
Business and innovation strategy
Organizational capability building
Sustainability
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives but the most adaptable”
Charles Darwin
Philosophy
Robust and proper governance results from two balanced pillars, a hard and soft one.
On the hard side, I accompany my clients setting good governance bodies and processes to guarantee fairness and transparence, and thus trust. Specialized in collective intelligence, I always work with participative decision-making processes and systems change methodologies in which my clients can co-construct their vision and decisions thus be autonomous actors of their future. This guarantees the sustainability of the solutions they design.
On the soft side, I place particular emphasis on family and team dynamics, proposing listening and dialogue tools and frameworks that enhance and develop collaborative skills and allow my clients to (re)build trust, ease their relationships, develop brave and empathetic communication and ultimetely choose resilience over reactivity.
Specific industries
Retail
Business strategy and sustainability
Real estate
Residential development, investment and estate management
Banking
Compliance & Risk management
Impact investing
Agritech, Medtech, Cosmetics & Renewable energies
About me
I have served as a business lawyer in Lausanne (former Carrard & Associés, now Kellerhals Carrard law firm) and Brussels Bars (Liederkerke, Wolters, Waelbroek Kirkpatrick law firm), then in various management positions for international companies, including Philip Morris, Ethicon (a J&J company) and HSBC.
In the last years, I worked as a leadership, teams, family business and innovation coach for IMD Business School in Lausanne. I now contribute as a senior advisor and guest lecturer for IMD’s Global Family Business Center.
I also sit as a qualified expert on the Supervisory Board of a large European family conglomerate, whose aim is both to ensure that the family vision and governance are well attended to and to validate the conglomerate’s business and impact strategy.
Professional experienceSophie Cuendet du Roy
Lausanne, Switzerland
Mob: +41 78 616 16 80
Mail: sophie@teleos.ch