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In 1925, Vincent Massey, the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Canada, did something that Ed Rogers today would find unthinkable.

He quit.

Massey (pictured below right) was the fourth-generation heir to his family’s Massey-Harris farm equipment company, then already well on its way to becoming Canada’s first truly global firm. Despite this, Massey decided that his future lay not in tractors, but in public service and philanthropy. He later became governor general of Canada.

This is the final article in the planned series of four, in preparation for the 18th Campden Wealth European Families in Business Forum in Berlin, Germany on 30-31 March, 2022. My prior articles—written for successors—addressed in turn the issue of successor value and the support successor's need to put in place to smooth succession over time.

At a family business conference, several years ago, I had the good fortune to hear speak the senior family member and then president of the fourth generation Italian fashion house, Ermenegildo Zegna. In reply to a question on where he spent his time, he identified three areas of personal priority.

Adani doubles green investment pledge of rival Reliance

Gautam Adani, India’s second wealthiest tycoon and leader of his infrastructure and energy empire Adani Group, has announced a $20 billion investment in renewable energy only weeks after rival Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person, committed to producing the green energy hydrogen.