Family enterprises often measure continuity through ownership, succession plans, and financial performance. In Invisible Capital, family-enterprise and leadership coach René Sonneveld examines the less visible resources that hold families together.
This book is aimed at business families, their advisors, and next-generation leaders. Sonneveld argues that enduring families maintain two balance sheets: one financial and another composed of intangible strengths. Money can transfer ownership, he argues, but it cannot create belonging, trust, or purpose. Families therefore need to cultivate these resources before succession, conflict, or disruption tests them.
His framework identifies six forms of invisible capital: relational; governance and learning; cultural and identity; reputational; social; and spiritual and purpose. The concluding Power Audit and Parallel Balance Sheet help families assess these areas through “Living” strengths that work now and “Lasting” strengths capable of surviving generational change.
Sonneveld supports his framework with decades of advisory experience, historical examples, selected research and case studies. For example, he notes that the Grimaldi siblings spent six months unable to agree on selling part of their logistics business. Sonneveld helped them separate their roles as owners, executives, and siblings and form a plan. They sold the warehousing assets but kept the core trucking operation. Afterward, one sibling focused on his CEO role, while another led a family council, a group that handled family and ownership matters separately from the company’s day-to-day management.
The author’s writing is clear and engaging, with stories, reflection questions, and field guides that turn abstract ideas into practical discussions. Although the capital metaphor and similar chapter structure can feel overused, the focus on building family strengths rather than simply preventing conflict gives the book a fresh approach.
Invisible Capital will be most useful to families who own businesses across generations, next-generation members, and the professionals who advise them. It offers a practical way to recognize and strengthen forms of wealth that financial reports cannot measure.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.