Boardroom with a pale blue agate table and seven chairs, overlooking skyscrapers at sunset

When family and business sit at the same table

Advisory on the human side of family businesses: roles, succession and everything that goes unsaid.

Book a first session See the approach
Around 70% of family businesses do not survive into the second generation.
Not because of the market. Because of the family.

According to family business research.

The hardest asset in any family business is the family itself. The Succession Room works exclusively with the human and family dynamics behind the business.

Owners, heirs and their families receive support through the hardest transition, without losing either the business or their bond with one another.

For all financial and legal matters, clients are referred to proven specialists, because real help begins with knowing one’s own limits.

Who sits at the table

Every family business has its seven seats, even when some of them appear empty. Choose a seat to see what we work with.

The founder

What I work with

Archetypes
The roles each family member plays unconsciously, at home and in the business.
Intergenerational patterns
A combination of tools for mapping the family system, including the genogram and a systemic approach to family relationships.
Inherited patterns
Experiences the family carries without speaking of them. Quietly, they are the ones making the decisions when the stakes are highest.
Behavioural patterns
How arguments unfold, who stays silent, who gives in, who decides for everyone else. Patterns that once protected the family may now be holding the business back.

Who it is for

This is for you if

  • you are the founder and sense it is time to hand something over, but do not know how without losing control or respect;
  • you are an heir waiting for your place while decisions are made without you;
  • you are siblings in the business and your childhood roles (the favourite, the responsible one, the rebel) now decide who runs what;
  • you are a spouse, a son- or daughter-in-law or a stepchild whose role in the business has never been clearly named, and you feel the distance;
  • in your family, money and inheritance have become the language of old, unresolved conflicts;
  • you are looking for someone who stands outside the story: not a lawyer, not an accountant, but someone who sees the patterns behind the numbers.

Trusted partners

Some questions call for different expertise. For these I work with proven specialists and can refer you to:

  • a lawyer, for wills and the distribution of shares;
  • an accountant or financial adviser, for financial and tax planning;
  • a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, when therapeutic support is needed.

How we work

  1. First session

    Online, 50 minutes, on the channel of your choice: Zoom, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal or Viber. I get to know your situation and together we assess whether and how I can help.

  2. Working phase

    Following a signed confidentiality agreement. We explore the dynamics behind the current challenge.

  3. Three-month programme

    We work with the family as a whole and with its individual members, so that relationships find their balance and the business can continue calmly through the change of generations.

Every project and every case is unique. We define the framework of our work together, and its terms, after an initial conversation and a closer look at your situation.

17 years
of first-hand experience in family entrepreneurship, with a portfolio growing from €1m to €280m.

About the founder

Liliya D.
Founder and Family Business Advisor, The Succession Room

I hold a master’s degree in Accounting and Control, so I understand the language of balance sheets, cash flow and ownership structures. But my real education came from elsewhere.

For almost two decades I had a front-row view of how family businesses are founded and built, and of how they collapse when unresolved inner dynamics take over.

I work with founders and family members to bring clarity to the complex dynamics between family and business, and to create the conditions for a considered transition from one generation to the next.

My approach combines discretion, structured dialogue and a deep understanding of the human relationships at the heart of family enterprises.

I combine a methodology for working with intergenerational patterns (systemic constellations and genograms) with a French school of interior design and decoration. I believe that space is a mirror of the family system. In a family company, the physical environment often holds unconscious messages about power, continuity and boundaries.

Lessons from Saint-Tropez

For seven years I lived on the Gulf of Saint-Tropez. There I witnessed at close range how a respected family can run its business: with vision, respect and deep integrity.

  • Genuine care for people: knowing every employee and their family by name, investing in the team and offering sincere support through life’s difficulties.
  • Lasting continuity: gradual and demanding preparation of the heir before the leadership is entrusted to them.
  • Balance and fairness: fairness among brothers and sisters, and a worthy place for sons- and daughters-in-law, often through a venture of their own connected to the family business.

Those years taught me lessons in leadership, ethics and family dynamics that lie at the heart of my work today.

The work is confidential. The focus is on the family, the business and the future.

A first step towards clarity

Before we sit down together, please tell me briefly about your situation.

Everything you share is confidential and used solely to prepare for our session. The first session is online and lasts 50 minutes.