Walter Zocchi, Holder of Family Business Office

Biz@India

March-April 2014

India needs to match footsteps of Europe & US

Walter Zocchi, Holder of Family Business Office

Holder of Family Business Office, specialist consultancy providing advices on strategy, organization, legal, fiscal, financial, succession and corporate issues to family business; Walter Zocchi is very interesting person who relates family office business to a film production company where he calls customer the producer and himself the director of the movie.
 
• Tell us something about your organisation. When was it initiated and how has it evolved over the years?
 
I am a tailor, a silent tailor who doesn’t need big tools. I have experienced more than 25 years of difficult cases in the family office business. More are complicated more I put enthusiasm. My organization is simply me, my laptop, my reputation and all the trust of my customers in me for the solutions I provide to them.

I started working in a family company in 1986. Since then, my passion for this segment was developed and after a long journey, today about 16 books have been published.

• What kind of services do you provide and how can these benefit the UHNWIs?

My customers are of three types – the family members (rules, coaching, fights), the company (strategy, organisation and governance all with family members), and the wealth (to take care and transfer).

• Are your existing clients single family units or multiple families?

I work for family members directly or for family offices, banks, professionals that need my advices for their important customers.

• What is your firm’s investment philosophy?

I believe in – silent, secret and low profile. I do not speak about names, never to nobody. Only my horse Pedro knows the name of my customers.

• How are your teams structured to deliver services to the clients?

I work as a director of the movie, not as an actor. The producer (customer) chooses a director of the movie for example Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola and then the director of the movie start speak to the producer to understand what kind of movie he has in mind. The director start think about everything: scenes, music, costumes, lights, landscape, and at the end he will choose the actors and then the movie starts.

• Do you have different services for different UHNWIs – inheritors, selfmade and professionals?

A tailor cannot have a standard product. I do not have one. I need to stay a lot of time with the customers and their family members. Sometimes they want a jacket blue but I suggest them to have a pullover red. A divorce, or a fight in the company or a liquidation of a partner or a death of the founder or rules for generation to generation process can have different good products, different costs, time and goals.

I have educational programmes for founders, for family members involved in the company. I have programmes also for young generation with different interests. It is important for them to understand how to manage wealth

• What are the top three characteristics that distinguish your firm the most from your competitors?

I work only if I can have trust and if I am comfortable with the customers. I refused many times to work also for big amount. I respect the ideas of the customers but everything needs a sense.

• What communication methods have you used with your clients?

Very honest, very clear, very transparent and very informal (I hate formal). I do not like to speak also. I prefer everything by mail. Sometimes I work riding horse with customer or on the plane. One time, I made a long advice on a canoe trip.

• Do you provide any client education programmes? Please mention.

I have some educational programmes for founders, for family members involved in the company with or without governance roles. I have programmes for young generation also. I have a special educational programme also for family members not involved in the company as wives and children with different interests. It is important for them to understand how to manage wealth.

• Is there any impact of economic slowdown on the demand? Are clients more cost conscious or quality conscious in the times of slowdown?

The families in the past and in the future more or less have the same problems so I do not feel the crisis for my job.

• What kind of potential do you see for the Indian family office business? What is your outlook? What are the current trends and opportunities?

I arrived in Asia (Maldives) in 1990 and I had a quite good experience. The Indian family offices can start thinking more or less like me. They are good producers but they cannot be the director of the movie because in India, there is not a tradition in studies, university, banks, politics and associations about family business. In Europe, we are the leader of the knowledge about family business. In the US, there is a good market for family offices that can offer a tailor-made advice with a director of a movie that can use the actors chosen by the customers.

The big problem I can see in India is the power of the founder that it is so strong about the family, the company and the wealth that I think he will not be very interested to listen to someone with knowledge. In Indian culture, the family is much closed and also this is can be a problem if the family office will try to advice new ideas and new concepts. The family member will be interested but what about the founder? I know many cases in Italy in fashion brands where the founder is a genius and a great entrepreneur but it is a disaster as family business leader. n