About Kevin
Family business consultancy rooted in lived experience
Kevin Howell specialises in helping enterprising families strike a healthy balance between family and work — across South Africa and the United States.
Kevin's deep understanding of multi-generational family businesses comes from personal experience. He has served as an advisor, team coach, and management consultant to family firms ranging from small businesses to large corporations.
Family firms face challenges that ordinary businesses do not. Kevin understands the delicate balancing act between protecting family relationships and reaching business goals.
For too long, family businesses have been viewed mainly through financial or legal lenses. The harder problems are behavioural — getting along while pursuing a shared ideal future.
Qualifications
- Masters degree in Business Administration (Gordon Institute of Business Science)
- Family Firm Institute (Boston, USA) Certificate in Family Business Advising
- Family Firm Institute (Boston, USA) Certificate in Family Wealth Advising
- BSc Honours — Information Technology
- National Higher Diploma — Electronic Engineering
Common issues Kevin addresses
Every family is distinctive, but the patterns repeat. These are among the issues Kevin works through with clients.
- Fairness in family dealings
- Family communication
- Family values and behaviour
- Inheritance and ownership
- Business competence of family members
- Family participation
- Parental interference with succession planning
- Family influence on decisions
- Non-family member conflict
- Ownership succession
- Personal versus business needs
- Board member selection
- Dividend versus investments
Why solve these problems?
A family has the best possible chance to achieve something every business seeks: unity. Where there is unity, economic success becomes far more likely.
Unity is not switched on like a light. It is created by purposefully planning the future for the family and the business together.
Strong economies are built by family businesses. That is why it matters that they last through multiple generations.
Why families fail — and how they recover
Founders often start as entrepreneurs and never realise they are building a family business. Their drive is met with disappointment when family conflict dismantles the dream.
Family enterprise requires parallel strategic planning: for the business and for the family. Without a shared purpose, there is little reason to continue past the first generation.
Kevin works with the behaviours and structures of family and business so the family has the best possible chance of sharing a common vision.
Ready to talk?
Call 083 303 9927 or send a note — Kevin works with families in South Africa and the United States.