To announce the birth of SPALDA Academy, which is a concrete product of the approach to nurturing future generations in family businesses not just as operational managers, but as leaders who can comprehend the corporate entity as a whole.
In my quarter-century journey in management consulting, I encountered a common question in the unique story of every family business:
“How and for which position should we prepare our children?”
This question became the beginning of a new journey that took shape in my mind in 2017. The issue went beyond just training for a specific duty or position; there was a deeper need. Preparing a family business owner’s child merely to manage a specific business function was insufficient for nurturing the next generation. There are important reasons why I find this approach inadequate, based on my fundamental understanding and experiences:
First, as a member of TKYD (Corporate Governance Association of Turkey), I have made advocating corporate governance principles the core mission of my professional life. Second, in my book “Companies Are Not Founded Just to Manage” targeted for publication in 2025, I emphasize the importance of nurturing next generations in family businesses not just as operational managers, but as leaders who can comprehend the corporate entity as a whole. SPALDA Academy came to life as a concrete product of this understanding: A contemporary learning and development journey focused on achieving tangible results in intergenerational leadership transitions in family businesses…
In this journey, I had the chance to work with a visionary family who trusted me and waited patiently. Our pilot implementation, which has been ongoing for two years, has encouraged us with positive feedback from both the business world and academic circles.
SPALDA Academy is a measurable and long-term development program designed to nurture next-generation leaders in family businesses and carry corporate culture into the future.
By instilling the mindset of “transferring management” rather than “managing” and “working harmoniously with professionals,” it equips young leaders with tools to establish and maintain professional structures. Through independent evaluators and regular feedback on the development performance of next-generation family members, it aims for a smooth generational transition aligned with corporate governance principles.
What makes SPALDA Academy, which we established for family businesses, different is its focus on building a sustainable future while preserving each family’s and company’s culture. It does this with the awareness that a one-size-fits-all model cannot meet different families’ needs and with flexibility that can adapt to each institution’s unique dynamics. For detailed information: https://spalda.academy https://www.linkedin.com/company/spalda/
This “birth” announcement I’m sharing with you today is a mature fruit of a quarter-century of experience, countless research, and most importantly, valuable field experiences. In family businesses, future leaders must possess the ability to manage not only the business itself, but the “corporate entity as a whole” which encompasses the business, family, and all owned assets. Sustainable success is only possible through this holistic perspective. In the coming period, I will continue to share our progress at SPALDA Academy and my thoughts on nurturing the next generation in family businesses through my website and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/orhanerkut). I invite you to be part of this transformation.
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