Yorgus, a Brazilian entrepreneurial maker of premium Greek yogurt, has hit its stride--and now it faces questions about the best path to achieve growth, including becoming independent of the context in which it was created. Founder Enrico Leta launched the company in mid-2014, and Yorgus grew against the backdrop of the Letas' large family business: Zona Sul, a high-end grocer with 36 stores. Enrico's father, Fortunato, leads Zona Sul, but conflicts in Fortunato's generation resulted in the prohibition of Enrico's generation from joining that business. This led Enrico, his brother Patrick, and other cousins to launch independent food businesses that benefited from some of Zona Sul's resources. Enrico developed Yorgus within Patrick's premium cheese business, Vitalatte, and the brothers collaborate on strategic decisions for both brands. Now Enrico is considering taking Yorgus independent, in part to scale more quickly than his brother would be comfortable attempting. But Enrico must ponder the possible effects of such a move on the current operating arrangement with his brother's business, as well as on his relationship with his brother, his father, and the broader family. The case illustrates common family-enterprise challenges, including independence versus autonomy, shared decision-making, and the alignment of risk appetites.

This case features a family business working to better integrate the voice of the whole family into corporate governance. In November 2019, the Herschend Enterprises board prepared to elect its first family chair in almost 20 years. For several years, the business, which owned and operated multiple popular US-based theme parks and other entertainment offerings, had been governed by a majority independent board led by an independent chair and run by a non-family CEO, with an engaged but largely hands-off family ownership group. Third- and fourth-generation owners struggled with how best to provide input on company direction. This was partly because several longtime independent directors, who were deeply trusted by the family and knew the business very well, were able to shape decisions and wield influence with minimal family input. In this context, the family had recently formed an owners' council responsible for consolidating the owners' voice. But the inaugural council members recognized that family leadership in general remained concentrated among a few members who filled slots on the family council, owners' council, and board. The company therefore had no effective mechanism in place to consolidate the voice of the owners and assure this was heard in the boardroom. Instead, it relied on the individual voices of owners who reached out to independent directors or on owners who already served as family directors. Grappling with these challenges were third- and fourth-generation family and owners' council members Chris (the incoming board chair), Jim, Jonn, and Austin Herschend--all serving or former Herschend corporate board directors. They considered how best to unify and engage the family around issues such as advising and working with the board, engagement of the broad ownership group, determination of optimal profiles for owners' council members and family directors, and the looming decision of moving from an independent chair to a family chair.