Questions I Never Expected to Answer

By Dr Clarisse Lafleur, family office governance and next-gen engagement advisor.

For much of my life, I thought my father didn't want me to be involved in the family business.

He never actually said that. In fact, he encouraged my brother and I to study and pursue our own ambitions and build careers that were meaningful to us. There was never any pressure to follow in his footsteps.

Looking back, I realise I confused freedom with distance.

Because we rarely spoke about the business, I assumed it wasn't something he wanted to share. I was fascinated by what he had built, but I wasn't sure where I fitted into it. Like many members of the next generation, I had questions, but I didn't always know how, or even whether, to ask them.

At the time, I thought that uncertainty was unique to me. Years later, I realised it wasn't.

I grew up in a multi-generational business family in New Caledonia. My father built a successful group of businesses, continuing the entrepreneurial legacy established by my grandfather, Jacques Lafleur. While he is remembered by many for the role he played in helping negotiate the Matignon Accords in 1988 and bringing an end to years of violent conflict in New Caledonia, to me he was simply my grandfather.

Growing up in that environment meant I was surrounded by conversations about leadership, responsibility and building something that would endure. Yet, despite that exposure, I remained curious about what happened behind the scenes. I wanted to understand not only how businesses were built, but how families sustained them across generations.

Those questions stayed with me when I moved to Australia to study at Bond University, where I completed my bachelor's and master's degrees. Then, in January 2020, I graduated just as the world shut down.

Like many graduates, I found myself entering an uncertain job market. At the same time, Australia's borders closed, separating me from my family in New Caledonia. Rather than waiting for circumstances to change, I began working alongside my father, supporting our Australian operations and acting as the Australian base for several of our New Caledonian businesses.

For the first time, I wasn't observing the family enterprise. I was part of it.

What surprised me most wasn't simply the complexity of the businesses. It was the sheer depth of knowledge that existed beneath the surface.

I suddenly realised I was trying to learn in months what could have been shared gradually over decades. There were structures, relationships, history and unwritten lessons that no textbook could teach. They could only be understood by being part of the family enterprise itself.

Something else happened too: working together transformed my relationship with my father.

The more we communicated, the more I realised how wrong my earlier assumptions had been. He had never intended to exclude me. Like many founders, he had simply been focused on building. He assumed I would ask if I wanted to know more. I assumed he would tell me if he wanted me involved.

Neither of us was wrong, but neither of us had started the conversation.

Looking back, I often wonder how many business families experience the same misunderstanding. That realisation became the question I couldn't let go of: why do some families successfully carry their legacy across generations while others, despite every advantage, struggle to do the same?

At the time, several close friends had begun PhDs in completely different disciplines. Listening to them talk about pursuing questions they genuinely cared about made me realise that perhaps I could do the same.

Until then, I had never imagined an academic career, but I couldn't ignore the opportunity to explore a question that had become deeply personal.

My doctoral research focused on family businesses and, more specifically, family offices, an area of study that remains surprisingly under-researched despite the critical role family offices play in preserving wealth, governance and continuity.

What fascinated me most, however, wasn't the technical side of family offices, it was the human side.

Over the following years, I had the privilege of interviewing family principals, next-generation members, family office executives and trusted advisors across multiple countries.

Those conversations confirmed something I had begun to suspect: the challenges facing business families are rarely simple. Succession is not just about appointing a successor, governance is not just about structures, and preparing the next generation is not just about education.

Continuity is shaped by an intricate combination of family relationships, communication, trust, governance, identity, stewardship, timing and individual aspirations. Every family brings its own history, personalities and ambitions, which is why no two families require the exact same approach.

As my research progressed, I realised these were not simply academic questions. They were real challenges that families around the world were actively navigating. I wanted to take what I had learned beyond research and into practice, to help families address these challenges in a way that reflected their own unique circumstances.

That realisation fundamentally shaped how I approach advisory work today.

Throughout my research, I became increasingly convinced that families deserve more than generic frameworks or standardised solutions. The technical aspects of continuity matter enormously, but they are only one part of the picture. Behind every governance structure is a family. Behind every succession plan are individuals with different motivations, concerns and expectations.

Understanding those dynamics is just as important as understanding the technical structures that support them. That belief continues to guide my work today.

I now advise family offices, business families and ultra-high-net-worth principals on succession, governance, next-generation engagement and long-term continuity, combining lived experience with academic research to help families navigate challenges that are often deeply personal as much as they are strategic.

What motivates me isn't simply helping families transfer wealth, it is helping them preserve everything that gives that wealth meaning.

Having grown up within a business family, worked inside one, researched hundreds of family office and business family perspectives, and now advising families facing many of those same questions, I have come to appreciate that continuity is never achieved through a formula. It is built differently in every family.

More recently, that perspective has naturally extended into another area that I believe will only become more important over the coming decades: family reputation.

Today's next generation inherits more than ownership. They inherit a family name, a legacy and an increasingly permanent digital footprint.

This perspective naturally extended into my role as an Independent Advisor with Pavesen, where I help family principals and the next generation navigate the growing intersection between governance, leadership, reputation and digital strategy. In an increasingly transparent world, reputation has become another form of family capital, one that deserves the same thoughtful stewardship as any other family asset.

Looking back, it is almost ironic that the questions I once wanted answered inside my own family eventually became the questions that shaped both my research and my career.

I still don't believe there is a universal blueprint for continuity. Every family is different, every founder is different, and every next-generation member brings different motivations, capabilities and aspirations.

That is precisely what makes this work both challenging and deeply rewarding.

If my own journey has taught me anything, it is that continuity is never something families can simply assume. It requires intention, preparation and trust.

And perhaps most importantly, it requires the willingness to ask the difficult questions before they become urgent. Those are the conversations I was once searching for within my own family.

Today, I have the privilege of helping other families navigate those same questions in ways that reflect their own history, values and ambitions.

For me, there is no more meaningful work.

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Dr Clarisse Lafleur advises family offices, business families, and ultra-high-net-worth principals on succession, governance, next-generation engagement, and long-term continuity. Raised within a multi-generational family enterprise and combining that experience with doctoral research, she brings a perspective shaped by both lived experience and academic rigor.