Handcrafted luxury designer Hermès has been a family business to watch for generations, just as we noted in our original story in 2015. Unlike some of its competitors, Hermès seems to weather economic storms with ease, making the Hermès family one of the wealthiest in the world, as Bloomberg noted in December. We loved that Bloomberg picked up this story because Hermès has a compelling story to tell.

So, what has the Hermès family done differently?

Legend has it that in the 1970s in Anchorage, Alaska, a man walked into his local Nordstrom store and tried to return a set of tires.

And Nordstrom accepted the return.

When you’re the daughter of a business owner, it can be difficult to navigate your role. What will the future look like? How will you fit into the firm? How do you carve out your own role, an “identity” that’s about you? Where are the others that are facing these challenges? Whom can you talk to?

Imagine you had six Lego bricks – you know, those 2 x 4 rectangular kind that you spent hours with as a kid? Now, could you guess how many different combinations you might possibly create out of those six little plastic bricks?

The answer is 915 million.

Notice how you didn’t need to be told what Lego was, even though it’s a child’s toy? It’s because Lego’s famous plastic brick has been around for more than 60 years. Today, close to 100 million children in 140 different countries play with Lego toys.

It might also surprise you to learn that Lego, the largest toymaker in the world by sales and profits, is family-owned.

This is the story of the Kirk Kristiansen family of Denmark.

It’s the largest commodities trader in the world, employs 155,000 people, and operates around the globe in a wide range of industries. Sales and other revenues totaled US$114 billion in fiscal year 2018, making it the largest privately held U.S. company by revenue, according to Forbes.

Chances are, you’ve had a taste of one of its products at some point in your day. An egg from McDonald’s. Or a Coke, or a beer. Or anything salted, sweetened, preserved, emulsified, or with added texture.

Candy bars, pretzels, canned soup, yogurts, ice cream – all include food additives that probably come from the company’s line of food ingredients – a business that, on its own, was worth $50 billion in 2015.

And there’s a decent chance you’ve never heard of it.

The company – and the family business – is Cargill.

It was late in 2014 – and a scenario many business families fear.

Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, the 72-year-old son of the company’s founder, had suffered a heart attack, leaving the family scrambling to address a leadership transition far sooner than expected.

One of the world’s largest companies – a $400 billion conglomerate including not just smartphones and electronics, but also shipbuilding, hotels and resorts, construction, advertising and even life insurance – suddenly faced questions about who would take over, steady the ship, and lead the company forward.

And this was no normal business family transition.

The Lee family would need to navigate its leadership change delicately. South Korean tradition dictates that no heir can take over the business until the patriarch has died. The problem? Kun-hee wasn’t dead, but his health problems left him incapacitated and unable to lead the company.

So slowly, re-writing the script as they went, the Lee family transitioned increased responsibilities to Kun-hee’s only son, Lee Jae-yong, who was appointed Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics.

But that issue would soon pale in comparison to what came next.

Global businesses today face a new set of challenges: greater international competition, lower profit margins and dwindling prospects for global growth. In this new reality, family businesses must learn how to capitalize on their unique strengths and combat their particular challenges, says a report by McKinsey & Company.  

Valerie WHITTINGHAM Pringle ’71 is one of the most recognized faces in Canadian broadcasting, particularly since she spent almost a decade sitting in the co-anchor chair at CTV’s Canada AM morning show. She co-hosted coverage of the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics and was chosen as one of the Famous 50 Faces of 50 Years of Canadian Television in 2002.

Ms. Pringle’s extraordinary journey began as a BSS student and Financial Assistance program participant, and she remains grateful for the support she received.

“I think people who give to student assistance have a very big heart and a very big vision because they know what a difference it can make in a life,” says Ms. Pringle. “A massive difference, all the difference in the world.”

Many issues facing family-owned firms today are due to a lack of strategic and succession planning, says a new report by PwC.

Isolationism, nativism, fear and uncertainty have characterized several global events over the past year, including Donald Trump’s recent election to the highest office in the United States and Britain’s exit from the European Union. As the world tries to grapple with these outcomes, The Economist recently pointed to a “happy contrast”: Canada.

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus has two huge projects underway, set to be completed in 2017: a $375 million medical school, and a $267 million children’s hospital. The campus will employ 20,000 people by 2020. Here’s what’s striking: in the 1950s, Bethlehem Steel, the second largest steelmaker in the United States, employed 20,000 people in Buffalo. The company went bankrupt in 2001.

The shift is representative of the rustbelt region as a whole. Not that long ago, industrial manufacturing was what made these cities great. But job outsourcing, manufacturing moving west, and increased automation almost ground the region to a halt. From the 1970s through the early 2000s, cities including Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh lost over 40 per cent of their populations. 

Bukky Boyo immigrated to Canada from Nigeria with her husband and three daughters in the spring of 2001. “We came to Canada because of the girls – we wanted them to have a good Canadian education,” Mrs. Boyo says. 

She soon began looking for a school for her eldest daughter, Alero. The application deadline for the upcoming school year at BSS had already passed. But it had one spot left in Boarding.