Managing talent in a family firm is a particularly difficult task that invariably raises a wide range of questions: How do you groom the members of the next generation? Prepare for what? How to attract qualified managers? How to satisfy the family's wishes and keep non-family managers motivated? All these challenges boil down to one question: how to manage talent in a family firm?

According to popular belief, certain innate personal qualities are required, a certain "personal instinct" or so-called "Fingerspitzengefühl." In contrast, countless books and manuals claim that, with the right set of analytical tools, we can all be capable negotiators. These two perspectives are, of course, crude caricatures of reality.