Over the years, the authors have had the opportunity to meet and study many of the world's oldest and largest family firms. They are impressed with how often they find them practicing similar methods of achieving success. They believe that these highly successful models offer lessons valuable to even the smallest and youngest family firms.

Family owned companies have a unique set of corporate governance challenges. A relationship built on trust between owners and managers is the key to achieving success.

Since the beginning of time, families have been working together. Goals could be achieved as a trusting group that eluded the grasp of the individual. Banding together with the people one knew best helped ensure survival and was highly successful for many years. One day, however, management gurus noticed that fathers hired mainly sons and wealth was preserved and controlled by small, related groups. They were aghast. -- Can this be right? Just think of all the quality talent going to waste in favor of ­ a son-inlaw? Capital markets theorists pointed out that enterprising families were missing out on broader capital access and ­ perish the thought ­ leverage.

The authors' belief in the innate value and uniqueness of family business culture created a project whose goal was to critically examine family business culture and performance relative to nonfamily firms, which was done using the Denison Organizational Culture Survey, a cultural assessment tool that has linked corporate culture to financial performance. The results showed that the corporate cultures of family enterprises were more positive than the culture of firms without a family affiliation.

A family agreement can be a powerful tool for any business owning family. It can secure and perpetuate an enterprise but it should be a distinct reflection of a family's culture and experience, argue Daniela Montemerlo and John Ward.

Family businesses tend to perform better than their non-family counterparts, which may be why more and more wildly successful firms like Google are getting in a family way.

More and more studies are showing extra longevity for family controlled firms, despite a conspicuous lack of resources and vulnerabilities. Yet many find the goal to endure and preserve wealth a long haul requiring commitment and adaptability.

A family council is common in a large, sophisticated family-run firm. But they can be tricky to implement and. like families, each is unique and evolves in its own way.

Some business-owning families believe that family success in philanthropy is much easier than family success in business. Not so. A family foundation still has to pass through the generational stages of involvement and control - with all the associated issues.

In these letters to the editor of 'Harvard Business Review', the authors discuss Cynthia A. Montgomery and Rhonda Kaufman's March 2003 article, 'The Board's Missing Link.' Professor John L. Ward of Northwestern University observes that the family-controlled business is an interesting place to examine and extend the insights and recommendations of Montgomery and Kaufman. He observes that in family-run companies, there are often very strong connections and accountability between shareholders and the board. Liz Guthridge of The Adobe Group thinks that the missing link in companies' governance triangles is not just between boards and shareholders; it is also between boards and employees, many of whom are shareholders. Professor John P. McAllister of Kennesaw State University observes that the authors may have also identified a serious inconsistency in the flow of information at most companies. Montgomery and Kaufman respond by observing that perhaps the larger theme to take away from reader reaction to the article is that shielding information from board directors and shareholders ultimately comes at a cost.

One of the challenges a successor to leadership faces is how to preserve the strengths of tradition while adapting traditions so they have more relevance for today. Sometimes, continuing a tradition is contrary to the requirements for business success. The task is to hold onto the spirit of a tradition yet reinterpret its meaning for contemporary use. Examples are discussed.

When individuals' private interests are as tightly interwoven as those found in successful family businesses, conflicts are common and virtually inevitable. It is suggested that the family be proactive in anticipating potential conflicts of interest and, if possible, adopt as a policy that no one in the family does business with the family business. However, when an outright ban on doing business with outside family members seems impossible, the following guidelines are suggested: 1. The firm will seek competitive bids for all controversial projects. 2. Family shareholders will be fully informed of all arrangements with family members. 3. Family members' use of pressure to secure employment or special treatment for others will be strictly avoided.

Describes the motivation for passing on a family business to the next generation. Three characteristics of families committed to the continuity of their family businesses; The purposes of family business mission statements; Different families focusing on different roles of the business in society; A list of family-business events featuring national and regional programs open to the public.

The cost and sometimes unpredictable quality of outside facilitators may discourage business-owning families from having family meetings. They may find the do-it-yourself approach to be more comfortable. Tips to increase your probability of success include: 1. Elect at least 2 family members to facilitate the meeting. 2. Have multiple family members involved in planning and running the meeting. 3. Provide for training. 4. Set the rules first. 5. Pay attention to details.

Compensation is at the heart of more family-business questions than any other topic except succession. Pay is an immediate and tangible symbol of the family business's complex relationship with the family members and others it employs.

As family-business leaders age, they often grow anxious over the prospects of business change and leadership succession. Depression is a frequent result. Because depression usually begins affecting people long before its presence is realized, one of its most insidious effects is that its symptoms are easily mistaken as the problem. Warning signs for depression are discussed along with a sample case study.

One of the biggest and most common obstacles to succession in family business is the need for personal financial security for the senior generation. Parents will rarely let go of authority and control if they do not feel financially secure themselves. Their continued needs often conflict with the business and personal needs of the next generation. Here is a good rule of thumb: If you save and conservatively invest 10% of your income every year for 20 to 25 years, you will be able to assure yourself a full income for life without selling or controlling the business. By doing so, you permit yourself to give your shares with maximum tax advantage to the next generation and can engage in planning succession based on what is best for the future of the business and the family.

That are 10 common attitudes among business owners that keep them from getting the advice they need: 1. They believe they can solve the problem themselves. 2. They do no want anyone throwing up roadblocks to their plans. 3. They believe an outsider could never understand their business. 4. They believe high-powered experts would not be interested in their business. 5. They believe professional advisors should be used only as a last resort. 6. They believe an advisor will raise a lot issues they do not have time to bother with at the present time. 7. They do not wish to share information with an outsider. 8. They believe advisors cost too much. 9. They believe a friend that knows them is the best advisor. 10. They are unsure of how relationships with professional advisors work.

Crucial points of financial mathematics necessary to the understanding of family business owners are discussed. Families should understand returns they achieve on their investment in their businesses. Business performance is usually measured as a return on equity - profit divided by the amount invested in the business. Investments are evaluated by comparing them with alternatives. Sometimes it is safer and more prudent to diversify risk beyond just one asset, the company. The more the business grows, the better early gifting becomes relative to later payment of gift or estate taxes. Taking more money out of the business is expensive and can compromise future growth. A company can grow approximately as fast as it leaves after-tax money in the business without increasing debt levels.

Among the most profound and petrifying choices that an entrepreneur can make is deciding whether to turn an enterprise into a family business by bringing one's children into ownership or management. While the specifics of each situation vary, there are 3 principles that apply in all cases: 1. Do not rush your children to make a commitment. 2. Do not procrastinate about communicating decisions - even if those decisions cause disappointment. 3. Empower your children to accept substantial responsibility for defining the future for themselves. The greatest obstacle to the success of this process is the natural instinct of parents to make or heavily influence decisions, especially those affecting the family or the business they built.

Many times, the biggest threat to a family business is the ego of someone involved. Powerful ego is not the exclusive domain of founders. Spouses, children and others in family-business systems can assert individual agendas in ways injurious to the family and the business as a whole. These may be elders other than the founder who refuse to relinquish power to capable successors, or a cousin who insists on larger dividends without regard for what is good for the business. These family members focus on their own needs and goals, fostering conflict in the family and potential abuse of the business. Suggestions for maintaining balance between individual and family goals are presented. They include limiting individual power with written policies, codes of conduct, family constitutions, mission statements, or other jointly produced statements of family norms and values.

According to Lilli Pratt of the Career Center at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, studies of managerial careers suggest 3 primary requirements for job satisfaction and personal motivation: 1. challenging, new learning, 2. working with likable people, and 3. clear boundaries between work and other interests.

A case study of a small business is presented. HVAC-CO is the fictional name of a real heating and air conditioning company in the Northeast. It is a family-owned business that provides heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fuel and plumbing services primarily to the residential market. The issues facing the family-business in terms of succession planning are discussed.

With their capacity to inspire and motivate employees, the passions of family-business leaders become a critical element of excellent leadership. A compelling vision also motivates the leaders themselves. Many leaders have the need and the never fully achievable desire to improve constantly - the essence of total quality management.

Many successful owners of family firms do their homework by becoming active students of family business. More than 50 US colleges and universities have begun programs for family members of family firms. The seminars illustrate that the issues for family firms are common and normal. Numerous industry groups provide excellent family-business learning opportunities for their members. Many families make family-business education a regular part of family meetings or family retreats.

Family owned businesses are urged to run the business like a business. Business leaders must work hard to accommodate family interests such as meaningful career opportunities, access to liquidity, or help in hard times.

Full disclosure is a critical element in many of the attributes that affect family businesses. Sharing sensitive, personal information with one another can help build trust. Providing facts that affect one another's personal and business planning affirms responsible ownership and mutual respect. Different families are comfortable with different levels of disclosure, particularly in relation to several key issues like: 1. compensation and perks of family members, 2. wills and estate plans, 3. family support and gifting, 4. shareholder liquidity, and 5. choices of trustees and business successors. Most business families find relief when the perceptions of secrecy and distrust are lifted away. If disclosures have not been the family norm, the sharing of information should unwind gradually.

Discusses the career development opportunities in family-owned businesses. Ability of family businesses to foster a family member's personal development; Early start of a family member' career development; Principles for families with siblings in the business

Discusses family business issues related to personal financial freedom and security. Common complaint from next-generation family leaders whose parents retain managerial control; Effect on generational progress; Lack of personal financial freedom leading to personal decisions that compromise the business; Funding of parents' financial security as a key step in succession planning. INSET: Establishing a stock buyback plan.

Business-owning families have a great advantage, but the advantage can distract the family from seeing what is most important in the long-run. What is important is a family whose members enjoy one another and do good things together - one that can use the opportunities conferred by business ownership to the greatest advantage for all. Owning a family business makes it possible to stay together as a family without much attention to nurturing family relations or to developing leaders who tend those relationships. That is the paradox; owning a family business provides a strength, but it also makes it easy to take family relationships and leadership for granted. Successful families in business consciously work hard to avoid that tendency. Recommendations are presented.

Provides suggestions to owners of family businesses in dealing with the so-called `silver spoon syndrome' in their children. Evaluation of children's strengths and weaknesses; Symptoms of the syndrome; Need for objective feedback to family members.

Presents descriptions of a family business. Proprietorship; Capitalist entity; Partnership; Family caretaker; Family mission; Entrepreneurial venture fund.

Discusses how the family affects the family business' long-term strategy. Advice top separate family and business; Importance of family considerations to business success; Gaining of strategic insights and energy; Consistency between business strategy and family beliefs; Family-business strategies fitting the owning family's personality, structure and values.

An exploration of the complex interactions that are at the core of family business decisions is presented. In family business strategy, family interests usually substantially influence business direction. Strategic decisions reflecting family interests usually make strategy more successful - even if the decisions do not seem best from a purely strategic perspective. Effective advisors to family firms should understand and effective non-family executives should accept the strategic interaction between family and business goals. Effective next-generation family successors must learn to manage that process. Family variables are rarely explicitly stated or even understood. Instead, implicitly they meld together into a family vision for the future. Seven alternative visions a family might imagine are: 1. proprietorship, 2. benevolent dictator, 3. partnership, 4. capitalist, 5. family mission, 6. entrepreneurial launching ground, and 7. as if public.

During the holidays, business-owning families often find it necessary to consider business matters, such as family meetings, gifts of stock, and bonuses and dividends for family members. However, mixing sensitive compensation and estate-planning decisions with the holidays complicates matters. The discomfort can be so great that important decisions may be deferred for yet another year. With respect for the holidays and the mix of emotions they bring, and the awareness of the inevitable end of the fiscal year, several important seasonal thoughts are offered, including: 1. Family time is fun; refuse to let the family focus on business. 2. The senior generation needs to take larger year-end bonuses. 3. Make gifts of stock aggressively to solve estate tax problems; establish a gifting guideline appropriate to the business and family circumstances and stick with it every year until it becomes an automatic event.

Factors common to the most successful family firms are presented. They include: 1. selective family employment, 2. freedom to sell stock, 3. written family mission statement, 4. open, coordinated estate planning, and 5. family educational meetings

Focuses on the development of successors for family businesses. Requirement of traits and skills in leadership; Recognition of special needs and challenges for next-generation leaders; Design of game plan for learning leadership; Development of two crucial attitudes.

Discusses family-business policies to guide future decisions and actions in a variety of areas. Includes employment of family members; Fixing a date for the older generation's retirement; Compensation arrangements; Development of a formula for dividend payouts; Stock redemptions; Ownership rights and responsibilities; Consideration of possible conflicts of interest.

Discusses the common problems of owners of family businesses. Moral and ethical crises; Reasons for the continuation of a business despite the hardships involved

The prevalence of conflict in family firms appears to be growing. One of the most important factors contributing to conflicts is the different perspectives from which family members view the company. Strategies for avoiding conflict are presented.

Lists the excuses made by family businesses in not having outside boards. No one good enough; No known people; Hurt feelings of family and employee directors; Uninteresting meetings; Prospect of removing a director; Boards as too much work; Fast growth; Directors' liability insurance; Resolution of family conflict; Refusal to give up control.

Discusses reasons why employees want stock ownership of a company. Financial reward; Employment contract or retirement plan as substitute; Personal pride; Sign of trust and commitment; Sharing of stock ownership as part of company's culture

Gives suggestions on selecting a family-business consultant. Definition of priorities; Problem-solving; Process commitment. INSET: Looking for a consultant

Gives recommendations on how a business-owning family should treat in-laws without or less experience in running an enterprise. Education and involvement in the family business. Description of holiday and vacation traditions; Appreciation of contributions; Availability of information; Promotion of strengths and family members to spouses; Inclusion of spouses in family and shareholder meetings. INSET: Untitled (conferences).

Discusses family-business owners' use of advisers. Failure to get the quality of advice needed; Reasons why owners are reluctant to get professional advice; Ways to assure oneself of the best counsel; Fears in working with advisers; Entrepreneurs' strategy in handling advisers. INSET: Evaluating your advisers

Urges family businesses to employ just salary compensation for family members. Discussion of the negative factors behind, and the negative effects, of the general practice of low compensation to family employees; Five factors; Observed and predicted negative effects of each factor to business and/or family employees; Arguments calling for salary-as-per-market value.

Discusses the beneficial returns of giving away money. Recipients of philantrophy; Central purpose of a family foundation; Interests of retired business owners; Monitoring of funds; Forms of philantrophism; Ways of handling philantrophy.

Discusses rules or policies for family-business participation. Nepotism; Necessity of clear communication of the rules; Fair application; Recommendations for standards family members should meet before making the family business a permanent career; Developing a policy; Useful guidelines.

Offers counsel to managers seeking employment in family firms. Beware of requesting a contract; Do not expect equity; Do not get too close; More.

Discusses the paternalistic culture in an organization. Definition of paternalism; Real costs; Effect on employee initiative and creativity; Effect on the boss; Assessing the degree of paternalism in the company.

Advances two `laws' of family business. Complexities which family businesses share that make them different from other businesses; Three-circle model; Seeing same issues differently depending on position in the family-business system; Dependence upon one another of the business's strategic plan, leadership succession plan and owners' retirement and financial-security plan. INSET: Learning opportunities.

Discusses ethical compromises in managing family-owned businesses. Significance of businesses to society; Ethical dilemmas faced by business owners; Reasons behind tendency of some entrepreneurs to commit ethical shortcuts; Long-term consequences attributable to habits of ethical shortcuts.

Explains how public trading can act as a whetstone to keep management sharp in a family firm. Focus on the accountability provided by public trading; Negative consequences of resisting accountability; Case study of Cargill, Inc., a family business that gained by going public.

Observes that many family firms are trapped by past success. Fears about making changes; Resulting stagnation; Importance of strategic renewal; Why family firms are particularly vulnerable to stagnation; Advice from experts on how to implement change.

Observes the fear of retirement often experienced by owners of family firms. Three prevalent beliefs held by those who have difficulties with succession planning; Why they refuse to retire; Negative consequences; Value of a good succession plan; Suggested attitudes about retirement that can help the process.

Examines some of the common dilemmas faced by successors in a family business. Uncertainty of where they stand; Determining whether they are a peer with other employees or a privileged owner; Balancing between being a subordinate and a boss; More.

Urges members of family businesses to evaluate the relationship between the family and the business. Importance of passing on a legacy of values via the business; Examples of values family businesses should emphasize to assure family-business continuity.

Lists some of the ways an outside board of directors can help a family business. Fresh creative perspective; Objectivity; Clarified roles; Accountability; Affirmation and confidence: More.

Observes that family-business success and survival largely depends on good sibling relationships. Why sibling relationships need continuous care and attention; Four principles for building and maintaining healthy sibling relationships in a familybusiness.

Urges family businesses to consider the importance of stewardship in their operations. Defining stewardship; How a responsible steward sees wealth as a resource to be used for the benefit of all of a business' constituents; Characteristics of a good steward; Benefits for both the business and society.

Identifies several reasons why business owners fear estate planning, despite the negative consequences of neglecting to develop an estate plan. Unwillingness to face mortality; Reluctance to announce future plans; Concerns about making uncomfortable decisions; More; Importance of going ahead despite objections. INSET: How to plan.

Investigates why it is very difficult to accumulate cash in a family-owned business. Analysis of basic business finance which makes cash scarce; Challenges faced in making a profit; How profits are generally used to fund growth; Why growth is a positive step; Importance of recognizing the values of growth over cash profit. INSET: Questions to ask.

Presents a case study of a family business that suffered from its implementation of a too-generous profit-sharing policy. Good intentions; Mistakes made; How to make sound decisions on profit sharing.

Advises family-business shareholders on how to be responsible owners. Obtain needed information; Learn the long-term consequences of decisions and actions; Consider the impact of decisions on others; Share thinking and decisions openly. INSET: Privileges mean duties.;Mark your calendar (conferences and...

Examines the issue of management succession in a family business. Importance of business owners taking time to be teachers, coaches, and counselors for their children/successors; Why entrepreneurs often shun the responsibility of teaching; Suggested teaching techniques to follow.

Addresses the dilemma faced by business-owning families with two or more children involved in the family business. Difficulties in designating a successor; Potential for family conflict; Tips on making a leadership succession decision.

Observes that reliable, trusting relationships are rare in today's business world. High costs of the prevailing lack of trust; How building trust can help family businesses succeed.

Examines two fundamental traits critical to a family business: patience and attention to process. Why they are important; Brief case studies of successful efforts to implement them in a family business situation.

Urges family businesses to enhance communication as a means toward achieving success. Why communication problems are common in family businesses; Tips for improving communication.

Examines the special strengths and weaknesses of family businesses during economic downturns. Opportunities; Tough questions and concerns that must be addressed; Recommendations for coping with hard decisions.

Advises family-business owners to make investment decisions with a long-term view. How family firms gain a competitive advantage with the power of patient capital; Suggested investment opportunities; Principles for investing.

Offers advice to family-business owners on how to attract, retain, motivate and compensate key, nonfamily managers. Why it is important to have quality managers; Why business owners are reluctant to seek out the best; Opportunities for nonfamily members; Types of people that could contribute to a family firm. INSET: Suggestions for nonfamily executives

Urges family-business owners to prepare for employee turnover, rather than try to avoid it. Recommended organizational profile; Advantages to employees and family members.

Studies entrepreneurs' struggles over whether to limit business growth or see their family lose control of the business. Suggests several approaches that permit financing growth while maintaining control.

Discusses the negative aspects of having too much `family culture' in a family business. Symptoms of the too-much-family syndrome; Lessons to be learned.

Urges business owners to make a list of suggestions and intentions to be considered in case something happens to them. Includes a possible outline of what to include in a suggested letter to successors.

Discusses several misconceptions about family businesses. Defining a family business; Characteristics of a family business. INSET: Mark your calendar (schedule of events for family businesses).

Urges wealthy parents to teach their children the values of accountability and responsibility. Dangers of overindulgence; Understanding accountability and responsibility in order to teach them to be parents.

Opinion. Argues that business people need to change how they view succession in order to make the process less painful and more of an evolutionary process

Stresses the critical need for planning in a business goal for long-term success. Why business owners often resist efforts to begin formal planning; Key factors in succession planning and setting future goals

A series of short columns about family business describes how to encourage kids into your business, how to turn off a child, taking stock of your family business, how to get help with special problems, and how to continue in harmony. Examp les. INSET: How to turn a child off; Taking part in taking stock.;Any...

This book delivers new IMD insights on an emerging challenge - how to deal with overwhelming complexity. Global organizations face a complex decision-making environment. On one side, diversity of cultures, customers, competitors and regulations creates complexity; on the other, competitive pressures cause expanding countries to extract more synergies across products and regions. In such a climate, a new way of thinking, acting and organizing is needed beyond the familiar ‘control’ mindset.

Drawing together insights from across the expert faculty, Managing Complexity in the Global Organization presents IMD’s framework on how to understand complexity and its four key drivers (diversity; interdependence; ambiguity and flux), along with solutions on specific issues in a variety of functions, industries and markets. The focus is on providing practical solutions based on real-life examples.

Dilemmas: problems to solve or a source of long-term success?

Why Others? summarizes the many questions which individuals and families need to ask themselves when turning to philanthropy.  Why should I give?  To whom? What for? How much?  Alone or with my family?  Each case is different of course, but there are principles which are valid for any giving.  The art of giving, consists both in meeting the needs of the beneficiaries and in fulfilling the expectations of the donors who are giving their time or money.  Why Others? is written to help you to discover philanthropy for what it is: a means to shape a better future by acting in the present.

Going from the sibling to the cousin generation is the last major transition for business owning families and many times this is the most complicated transition.

A cousin-stage business requires a completely different pattern of thought than a sibling-stage business.

This book by the authors of Making Sibling Teams Work: the Next Generation is aimed at helping cousins organize themselves and their extended family for success as a group that owns and runs a business together.

You will become knowledgeable about the key issues that cousins face, such as how to attract the most capable family members into the business leadership roles or how to develop agreement among owners who may be widely scattered in geography and opinions.

If you are a sibling owner, this book will help you create the circumstances to help your children become successful team -if it's the family's goal to continue in business together.

This is a how-to book aimed at helping the cousin generation continue working together successfully.

In From Siblings to Cousins: Prospering in the Third Generation and Beyond you'll learn:

the requirements for success;

managing the business in the cousin generation;

the art of governance in the cousin generation;

the transition issues that occur from siblings to cousins;

special challenges for cousins;

assuring continuity and success;

and much more.

When cousins set their hearts and minds to it, they can work together and give continuity to a viable business and the owning family. Transforming themselves from a disparate group of cousins who once hardly knew each other into a Cousin Collaboration will be both awe-inspiring and rewarding. From Siblings to Cousins: Prospering in the Third Generation and Beyond will show you how.

'Is it possible to speak openly about wealth? That is the challenge that this book modestly attempts to meet, using all the accourtrements--knowledge, wisdom and even humor--that such a topic requires. It is our greatest wish and highest ambition that today's wealth--whether long-held or recently acquired--be wealth for the future, not just an end for today. Wealth is a means of building tomorrow's world.'

Thierry Lombard
Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie

This book is by eminent family enterprise consultants Dr. Denise Kenyon-Rouvinez and Dr. John L. Ward who bring their vast knowledge to this subject. With the wisdom of Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard and the humor of French cartoonist Gabs, this book is a must for all family members dealing with the issue of wealth.

The family business has been the most prevalent and pervasive form of business in many countries, raising questions concerning succession and governance and in particular the relationships among management, board members and family members. This book is a fantastic collection of articles by leading thinkers and practioners on the family business which covers such issues as ensuring a healthy family business, family strategy, governance and succession.

The two most effective practices implemented to protect and preserve the family business are: 1) to build an independent board to strengthen the business and 2) to draft a Family Agreement to strengthen the family. This book is about the latter: the Family Agreement. This is any kind of written principles and/or rules that regulate the relationship of the family with its business.

Family businesses prosper by pursuing unconventional strategies. Because they are values-driven and think very long-term, they take approaches not popular with current management fashion or most companies. That is the key to their competitive advantage. However, family businesses must find ways to simultaneously serve business needs and family goals, which require very different priorities and principles. As a result, they must think paradoxically, and find insights that single-purpose enterprises need not contemplate. They must dare to be different. Family business requires a different governance system, but it must nevertheless be one that can be controlled. Building on insights from the world’s premier family business executive education course, this book offers the Unconventional Wisdom needed to leverage the strategic and cultural uniqueness of a family business for enduring success.

This book brings together a vast amount of experience to show the "best practices" of the most successful and long-lasting families in business. It provides a framework of five insights and four principles in which to position 50 lessons for family businesses. This is the most comprehensive book on sustaining the family business and contains international examples and cases and essential tools and checklists of best practice. Languages: Serbian

Few challenges demand more of a business owner than passing on the family business to the next generation. Family members' lifelong hopes, dreams, ambitions, relationships, even personal struggles with mortality--all figure into managing succession. This second edition of a 1992 classic reflects many more years' worth of knowledge gained in the study of family business. This edition identifies succession management problems and solutions for any family business CEO, whether the business is in its first or second or third generation, or beyond. This edition focuses not only on succession planning but more so on managing succession. Good succession management is like good strategic planning. Once the planning is completed, the real challenge and greatest value comes from keeping it current and implementing it. Family Business Succession: The Final Test of Greatness, 2nd edition helps break the complex succession planning and management process into understandable pieces. In its pages you'll learn: the different types of leadership transitions; how to overcome resistance to transferring power, as well as ideals for new roles, new careers and other post-retirement activities; five pieces for good management of the succession process; to prepare your business for succession; to prepare your family for a successful transition; develop effective successors; the process of choosing a successor; how to implement succession; how to avoid common post-succession mistakes and problems; and much more... Family Business Succession shows how to turn succession from a potentially explosive crisis into a renewed commitment to the business and the family. It is fast reading, filled with real-life cases, practical tips and 15 useful exhibits.

The purpose of this book is to explore with the reader whether Darwin's theory of evolution is a valuable metaphor for family business continuity. Is there, possibly, a 'family business biology'? Do Darwin's concepts of struggle for life, adaptation, variation, mutation, natural selection, procreation and inheritance provide helpful insights for family business owners?

Being an owner of a family business should be a satisfying, fulfilling and profitable experience. For some, however, ownership can be a painful experience, even leading to conflict. But it doesn't have to be this way. In Family Business Ownership: How To Be An Effective Shareholder, we explore the far deeper rewards--spiritual, psychological, intellectual, emotional and financial-- that can come from being an effective shareholder in a healthy family business. We show you how to build cohesive leadership, and constructive, rewarding, supportive family owners. No matter how many shareholders are in your family business, this title is a vital tool not only to make the business an asset to its owners, but its owners an asset to the business

Family business leaders of the past could often guarantee decades of success built on a single, long-lived strategic plan. But the current rapid rate of change makes ongoing success an infinitely more difficult challenge. What works today is passé tomorrow. In Make Change Your Family Business Tradition, those involved in or with a family firm will learn how to: build and preserve a foundation for constant renewal; modify the company’s culture while preserving its values; recognize and overcome the inhibitors to change; adapt traditions to contemporary realities; develop characteristics of an effective change leader; respect the past while embracing the future; encourage and make room for the next generation’s changes; gain family and employee commitment to change...and much more.

From small start-ups to giant multinationals, from the Mom-and-Pop-owned barbershop to Ford Motor Company, family owned businesses continue to dominate the world economy. Regardless of size, running a successful family firm presents unique challenges, and many fail to survive the transition from one generation to the next. Here is a practical, comprehensive guide to ensuring success through effective strategic planning. The authors provide a wealth of tested, easy-to-follow tools and techniques for mastering strategic planning for family-owned firms. Filled with real world examples, case studies, checklists and planning worksheets, the book shows how to deal with a host of emerging challenges –from new technologies to global markets– by integrating family values and dynamics into sound planning and management.

how values bring power to the family business, *how family values can strengthen day-to-day operation, *how values can help to resolve conflicts within the family and between family and business, *twenty winning values shared by successful family businesses, *how to identify and articulate genuine family values, *how to nurture and pass on values in the family and the business, *how to renew and reinterpret values to retain their productive power in today's fast-changing world, and much more.

The success, growth and well-being of a family business depends on its ability to attract, motivate, develop and retain outstanding executives who are not family members. More Than Family: Non-Family Executives in the Family Business aids family business executives, both inside and outside of the family, to work together more effectively to achieve the goals of the business and its owners. It contains profound insights into the effect on non-family executives of such crucial issues as succession, compensation, ownership, relations between executives and the owning family, and much more. Reading this book will help both family members and non-family executives to better understand each other, providing the basis for building more effective top management teams. An "Open Letter to the Non-family Executive" delineates the key issues that executive candidates should consider when joining a family firm. In this booklet you'll learn: how to attract and retain the best non-family executives for your family business; how to make non-family executives part of the family business team; how to deal with questions of ownership for key non-family executives; how to build relationships between non-family managers and family shareholders, and with next generation business leadership; how non-family executives can help to facilitate the succession process; how to employ a non-family CEO with maximum effectiveness; how to provide compensation and incentives for non-family executives and much more… In addition to the authors' extensive family business consulting experience, the collected expertise of 20 top family business experts representing all the relevant professional advisory fields shows you how to develop outstanding relationships that will strengthen and enrich your business and your family.

Developing Family Business Policies: Your Guide to the Future leads you through a process that will enable you to determine your family's specific policy needs. You'll learn how to create policies that are tailored to meet those needs. You'll find sample policies and actual case studies. This booklet will show you: why family businesses should develop policy guides; which core policies every family business should have; what factors influence policy development; what seven keys lead to successful policy making; what steps are involved in developing family business policies; how shareholder agreements protect the family and the business; why a family should draft its own shareholder agreement before an attorney puts it in final form and much more....

Family businesses are increasingly being passed from founder to next-generation sibling teams. Brothers and sisters own and run businesses together in relationships that are characterized by strength, joy, love and support - or by dysfunction, disharmony and disaster. This book will help business-owning parents position their children for success as co-owners and co-leaders. It will help wives and husbands to be supportive, not overwhelmed, by the dynamics of the family into which they've married. This book will also help those who are or might become part of a team of sibling owners or managers work more effectively. In Making Sibling Teams Work: The Next Generation, you'll learn: how parents can improve the odds of next generation success; how in-laws can prepare themselves for their roles and play them effectively; how brothers and sisters can ensure successful working relationships; how to develop the infrastructure of governance, policies, and procedures that optimize planning, decision making and accountability; how to assure that Mom and Dad won't divide the sibling team; how to nurture positive personal relationships among siblings and their spouses; how to develop and articulate the sibling team's values and goals; how to prepare for the coming cousins' generation; and much more... This book will show how teams can successfully pilot a family business through the vulnerable second-generation stage.

Responsible and disciplined strategic integration of family and business goals, strengths and values produce powerful results for family firms. Significant strategic change is crucial and now likely to be required as many as five times during the tenure of new family business leaders. In Preparing Your Family Business For Strategic Change, you'll learn: how to ensure that your family enterprise stays strategically fresh; how to make change your tradition; how to prevent past achievements from limiting future successes; how family values and passions can promote strategic business strengths; how to recognize and use your family business' advantages; how to overcome family business disadvantages; how to create a strategic culture and much more... Creating and implementing successful family business strategy requires family business leaders to understand the real reasons for success, to create a culture of change and to manage incremental strategic experiments in ways that consistently stimulate strategic thinking.

Effective governance empowers leaders of the business and the family to make the most of the unique strength of a family business: the synergy between a strong, unified owning family and a well-run family enterprise. In Family Business Governance: Maximizing Family and Business Potential you'll learn: how effective governance can have a positive impact on your family and your business; how to set up productive governance structures; how to overcome objections to establishing governance processes; how to determine primary responsibilities of the board, the family, and management; how to recruit and use your board; how outside directors can help strengthen your business and insure its continuity; how to set family policies and procedures that govern key areas of family concern; how to earn "voice" in the family and in the business and much more... While every family business is unique, embracing systematic governance processes can help any family business achieve goals shared by virtually all.

If a family-owned business is to endure and provide the maximum potential opportunity for future generations, it must plan for provision of both adequate shareholder liquidity and sufficient business capital. Careful planning and sophisticated use of a growing collection of financial techniques can help the family retain business control and make wise choices among many available alternatives. François de Visscher, leading authority on family business finance, joins Drs. Aronoff and Ward in this guide to: anticipating and managing capital and liquidity needs; evaluating two dozen up-to-date, sophisticated financial solutions for providing liquidity and capital for the family business; avoiding the downward liquidity spiral; keeping patient capital from becoming impatient; controlling the family business' cost of capital and much more... Financing Transitions: Managing Capital and Liquidity in the Family Business gives business owners the financial insight and understanding needed to provide future generations with the fullest possible opportunity to enjoy the unique benefits of business ownership.

The success and survival of your family business may depend on the professionals you choose to advise you on matters of finance, law, taxes, family relations, business strategy, succession and other issues. The good news is that never before have so many experts in so many fields been so eager to serve family businesses. How to Choose & Use Advisors helps you to understand: when to consult an advisor; what to expect when you do; which advisors to call about which kinds of issues or problems; benchmarks for good professional practice; warning signs for when relationships with advisors are less than they should be; how to find and engage advisors who are best for you; how to manage advisors effectively and efficiently; how to maximize the value you receive from your family business advisors and much more... In addition to the authors' extensive family business consulting experience, the collected expertise of 20 top family business experts representing all the relevant professional service fields shows you how to develop outstanding relationships that will strengthen and enrich your business and your family.

Compensation matters are among the most frequently asked * and complicated questions facing business-owning families. What is * fair? How can the rewards of ownership be distinguished from pay for * performance? How can the owner motivate and retain key non-family * employees? Family Business Compensation shows you how to deal with * these tough issues in ways that strengthen your business and your * family teams. This booklet shows you how to: develop a philosophy of * compensation; establish incentive plans; make compensation a * catalyst for business planning; compensate non-family executives; * build trust through the compensation process; communicate about * compensation; anticipate and avoid common compensation problems; and * much more... Family Business Compensation gives straight answers * and sound advice for family businesses of any size or in any stage * of development.

How Families Work Together emphasizes how to build positive and constructive family relations by learning to make the characteristics and dynamics of family life work for you. Dr. Mary Whiteside of the Ann Arbor Center for the Family, a nationally-recognized family systems psychologist, joins Drs. Aronoff and Ward in this volume. This guide will help you: understand how family history affects current behavior; tap family heritage to accomplish shared goals; interpret trouble signs in family/business relations; learn to use powerful tools to improve personal/business relationships among family members; construct family genograms and use them to understand and smooth family/working relations; render family conflicts more manageable and less painful; break harmful or painful patterns of family behavior; make family ownership a business asset and much more... How Families Work Together will help to untie knots in the fabric of the family. It shows how to focus family energy on moving forward together toward shared goals, emphasizing psychological health in family systems.

Another Kind of Hero: Preparing Successors for Leadership focuses on how a family firm's next generation of leadership can effectively enter the organization and develop essential business and leadership skills and experience. In its rich but readable pages you'll learn: seven stages in successor development; skills and attitudes required for leadership; how to lay the psychological groundwork for success; what the young person should consider before joining the business; how to construct a personal development plan; how successors gain credibility and legitimacy; how to manage succession when there are multiple family candidates; how successors can effectively manage change; how the older generation can play a positive role in the succession process; and much more... Another Kind of Hero shows how successors can prepare for a job that doesn't yet exist in a future that no one can clearly foresee. It is fast-reading and filled with real-life cases, practical tips and useful checklists.

Family Meetings: How to Build a Stronger Family and a Stronger Business, 2nd Edition demonstrates the value of family meetings and how to effectively use family meetings to achieve family and business milestones. The 2nd edition contains more exhibits, tables and examples of how to assure success when having meetings. In its information-packed pages you'll learn: ten benefits of effective family meetings; how to use family meetings to plan for future ownership and participation in the family business; how to use family meetings to preserve family traditions and history and to recognize and resolve conflicts; the key questions to be dealt with at family meetings; how to organize and run effective family meetings; how family meetings change as the business evolves; how to separate family issues from business issues; how to use rituals and ceremonies for bonding and recognition; how to have family retreats; activities to energize family meetings and much more Family Meetings is one of the most important resources available for ensuring family business continuity. Building family participation and commitment results in shared values and collective decisions that strengthen the business and the family.

The most complete handbook on boards for small to midsize private and family businesses, this bbook shows how to build a dynamic board of directors that can enhance the owner's ability to run the business. John L. Ward shows why private firms, facing increasing competitive challenges, need the in-depth expertise and objective feedback that a well-chosen board can provide, and demonstrates how owners and directors can work together to ensure a long and profitable life for the firm. Ward provides owners and directors with step-by-step guidelines for developing and managing a board- from writing the initial prospectus, through conducting lively meetings, to maintaining open, honest communication between owners, directors, spouses and family members, and other stakeholders in the firm. He shows how to-- * Find and attract the right directors- experienced business people * who can contribute the exact knowledge and expertise the company * needs to thrive and grow; * Compensate directors appropriately and protect them from legal liability; * Foster creative thinking about promising new directions for the * company, such as new products, services, or markets; and * Draw upon board expertise to improve the qualit and creativity of decision making about a wide range of issues, such as how to find sources of capital, develop the next generation of leadership, or recruit new talent. Ward illustrates this practical guide with extensive case examples from a wide of small to midsize businesses, including food service, printing, and chemical companies. He also offers sample board prospectuses, company mission statements, effective meeting agendas, and other essential tools for bringing the board together and encouraging its active participation in the business.

You've worked hard to build your family business, but sometimes you need more than simple answers to you firm's complex business issues. In the 3rd edition of Family Business Sourcebook, you'll find these answers. This edition incorporates the best thinking and writing by some of the most respected authors in the field including Craig Aronoff, Joseph H. Astrachan and John L. Ward. With 20 new articles, Family Business Sourcebook provides articles representing the major interest areas in the broad family business domain. Chapters include succession, management and strategic planning, ownership issues, boards of directors, psychological issues, family relations, women in the family firm, culture, values and ethnicity and much more. In Family Business Sourcebook, you’ll learn: How to maximize your family's natural competitive advantages; How to build successful, smooth-running business succession plans; How to invest in family business; How to build a strategic plan that capitalizes on your firm's unique strengths; How to learn the ins and outs of family business taxation from estate planning to structuring buy-sell agreements; How to professionalize your family firm; How to work with outside boards; How to deal more effectively with change and family conflict; How to develop the next generation of family business leaders and much more... Used as a textbook in some of the most prestigious family business educational programs in the country, Family Business Sourcebook, 3rd edition is the ultimate encyclopedia for family businesses and a must read for family business members and the advisors who counsel them.

Less than one-third of family-owned businesses survives until the second generation because owners or managers avoid making decisions about the company's future. As a result, they fail to adapt to changing business and family conditions. In this best-selling reprint of his classic Keeping the Family Business Healthy, John Ward offers numerous practical resources to help family businesses develop strategies for long-term prosperity. You'll learn: how to overcome difficulties caused by changes in the nature of the business, its organization's character, or the family's expectations; how to ensure family interest in leading the business; how to assess the firm's financial and market situation; how to develop a strategic plan; how to plan the family's role in the company's future; how to shape a business strategy that incorporates the family; how to promote a revitalized business vision and strategy after a leadership transition and more... In its pages you'll find a number of practical worksheets and models like: a values questionnaire; a sample financial analysis of business; strategic planning worksheets; sample business strategic plan; sample family strategic plan; chart detailing "blood" equity versus "sweat equity" Keeping the Family Business Healthy is a useful guide for owners, managers, family shareholders, and the professionals who serve family firms.

Iscar Metalworking was an Israeli producer of metal working and metal cutting tools for industries requiring precise tolerances. Iscar had grown into a global enterprise with employees and offices throughout the world, though it was founded in 1952 in modest circumstances. The business thrived on innovation, passion and dedication to a client-centred approach. Something appeared on the horizon, however, which could potentially disrupt the hard-developed strategies and prosperity of its winning approach. Iscar was a second generation family firm whose CEO was not a family member. Retirement loomed in the medium-term for the family member chairman and the family was unsure of next generation interest in hands-on management of the company. How best to preserve for the future what two generations had worked so diligently to build and nourish? Management evaluated a broad range of options. But Iscar's special brand of success was unique and to be protected at all costs. It became evident that the best solution for the company was to evolve into a situation where it could remain operationally independent yet have its future - corporate culture, strategic approach - assured. It felt like looking for a needle in a haystack but the answer finally appeared. Berkshire Hathaway (BH), run by the famed investor Warren Buffett, appeared to operate in fashion very recognisable to Iscar. Independence, maturity, values-driven management were evident in the way BH did business. This case explores Iscar's steps toward growth and success, its recognition that both a familiar and a different future must be assured for the long-term and the process and reality of becoming part of the BH dynasty. Learning objectives: to allow participants to consider the role of corporate culture and company 'DNA' in the context of a need for significant change. Mergers and acquisitions must be approached carefully and in full understanding of the implicit risks and benefits to a company's culture and history of a transaction. How important are similar or complementary values and purpose in a strategic combination? The approach of the acquiring firm can build or destroy value in the target. What makes the difference between the two outcomes will be explored.

Raymundo Leal, a self-made Mexican businessman, turned 50 in 1994. The first 25 years of his life were spent educating himself and getting married. The next 25 were devoted to building a business and raising a family. Would he spend the last part of his life as he had the previous 25 years? Should he continue accumulating money that, according to his lifestyle, he would never use? He asked himself - Is this all there is to life? Would inheriting money be the best legacy he could pass along to his children? Perhaps leaving the leadership of his company and devoting himself to Mexico’s poor with smart, effective charitable giving would be the best use of his time. There were serious ramifications to such radical change. Who would lead the business if he were to devote himself to philanthropy? How would his family react to this shift in priorities and the resulting financial implications? Learning objectives: Identifying an individual path to philanthropy; Family business succession transitions; Exploring philanthropy (or family office or family governance) as a way to maintain family cohesion and direction.

This two-part case series starts with the accidental discovery of an important condiment in Chinese cuisine in 1888. The company, Lee Kum Kee Ltd., was born as a result and over the intervening years grew into a large global enterprise. Case A describes the development of the firm and family from the 1st through 4th generations. Development of a values-based corporate culture, facilitation of entrepreneurship and the ramifications of family/business crises are highlighted.

The B-case of this two-part series examines the 5th generation’s interest in and engagement with the company and prospects for the future of family leadership. Establishment of critical governance structures, preparation for periods of non-family management and mechanisms for formal and informal next generation education are key issues.

This three part case series explores the strategic and cultural implications of recognizing a major reconsideration of a multitude of long-held beliefs may be needed to ensure a firm’s survival. The business lines and corporate culture that had served this landed estate so well and for so long had been challenged by radical changes in the operating environment, industry and ownership assumptions. The company needs to look deep inside itself and clarify its purpose and core values. The A case presents the background and colorful history of this unique business, from 1299 to the year 2000, and lays out the challenges and options under consideration by the trustees, family owners and management. Much was at stake for Clinton Devon. To sell the estate lock, stock and barrel, spending the future counting newly-liquid wealth, was not an option congruent with the family’s heritage and philosophy. However, to do nothing meant the estate’s near-certain demise. Case B reveals the innovative and unexpected steps actually undertaken by this organization and the results that followed. The C case brings the story up-to-date with an assessment of the Estate’s strategic initiatives and results. New plans for the enterprise are reviewed. Learning objectives: 1) Making decisions between two desirable alternatives may not be necessary. There may be a third way to accomplish both. 2) Reinforcing the notion that frequent, authentic communication with constituents, focused on long-term relationship building, is essential. 3) Engaging the workforce can uncover existing potential. 4) Hiring an outsider with fresh views and who shares the family’s values may bring the talents of a change agent to bear on the situation. 5) Understanding that a firm’s traditional industry and its culture and purpose can be de-linked without harm to the enterprise.

his three part case series explores the strategic and cultural implications of recognizing a major reconsideration of a multitude of long-held beliefs may be needed to ensure a firm’s survival. The business lines and corporate culture that had served this landed estate so well and for so long had been challenged by radical changes in the operating environment, industry and ownership assumptions. The company needs to look deep inside itself and clarify its purpose and core values. The A case presents the background and colorful history of this unique business, from 1299 to the year 2000, and lays out the challenges and options under consideration by the trustees, family owners and management. Much was at stake for Clinton Devon. To sell the estate lock, stock and barrel, spending the future counting newly-liquid wealth, was not an option congruent with the family’s heritage and philosophy. However, to do nothing meant the estate’s near-certain demise. Case B reveals the innovative and unexpected steps actually undertaken by this organization and the results that followed. The C case brings the story up-to-date with an assessment of the Estate’s strategic initiatives and results. New plans for the enterprise are reviewed. Learning objectives: 1) Making decisions between two desirable alternatives may not be necessary. There may be a third way to accomplish both. 2) Reinforcing the notion that frequent, authentic communication with constituents, focused on long-term relationship building, is essential. 3) Engaging the workforce can uncover existing potential. 4) Hiring an outsider with fresh views and who shares the family’s values may bring the talents of a change agent to bear on the situation. 5) Understanding that a firm’s traditional industry and its culture and purpose can be de-linked without harm to the enterprise.

This three part case series explores the strategic and cultural implications of recognizing a major reconsideration of a multitude of long-held beliefs may be needed to ensure a firm’s survival. The business lines and corporate culture that had served this landed estate so well and for so long had been challenged by radical changes in the operating environment, industry and ownership assumptions. The company needs to look deep inside itself and clarify its purpose and core values. The A case presents the background and colorful history of this unique business, from 1299 to the year 2000, and lays out the challenges and options under consideration by the trustees, family owners and management. Much was at stake for Clinton Devon. To sell the estate lock, stock and barrel, spending the future counting newly-liquid wealth, was not an option congruent with the family’s heritage and philosophy. However, to do nothing meant the estate’s near-certain demise. Case B reveals the innovative and unexpected steps actually undertaken by this organization and the results that followed. The C case brings the story up-to-date with an assessment of the Estate’s strategic initiatives and results. New plans for the enterprise are reviewed. Learning objectives: 1) Making decisions between two desirable alternatives may not be necessary. There may be a third way to accomplish both. 2) Reinforcing the notion that frequent, authentic communication with constituents, focused on long-term relationship building, is essential. 3) Engaging the workforce can uncover existing potential. 4) Hiring an outsider with fresh views and who shares the family’s values may bring the talents of a change agent to bear on the situation. 5) Understanding that a firm’s traditional industry and its culture and purpose can be de-linked without harm to the enterprise.

This case series follows the Richard Owens family through nearly one hundred years of evolution and change. The A-case describes how the family business started with one grocery store in 1906 and, by 1974, had grown into a large private enterprise that included supermarkets, liquor stores and real estate. While competitors could not seem to stop the Owens family business, fractured family relationships and rivalries caused significant problems. In 1974, the conflict came to a head and the firm was split into three, one business line for each sibling. 
 
This four part case series follows the Richard Owens family through nearly one hundred years of evolution and change. The family business started with one grocery store in 1906 and, by 1974, had grown into a large private enterprise that included supermarkets, liquor stores and real estate. While competitors could not seem to stop the Owens family business, fractured family relationships and rivalries caused significant problems. In 1974, the conflict came to a head and the firm was split into three, one business line for each sibling. How the businesses fared and how each brother managed his company for the future are the subjects of the B case. Efforts by one branch of the family to avoid the kinds of problems that brought about the division of the original family business are outlined. Governance and ownership issues now faced by the next generation are highlighted. The C case brings participants up-to-date with the evolution of the Richard Owens family's first constitution and governance policies implemented to help protect the family firm for the future. The D case presents the next step in family and company governance, highlighting the most recent family constitution dated November 2002.

How the businesses fared after the firm was split up in 1974 and how each brother managed his company for the future are the subjects of the B case. Efforts by one branch of the family to avoid the kinds of problems that brought about the division of the original family business are outlined. Governance and ownership issues now faced by the next generation are highlighted. 
 
This four part case series follows the Richard Owens family through nearly one hundred years of evolution and change. The family business started with one grocery store in 1906 and, by 1974, had grown into a large private enterprise that included supermarkets, liquor stores and real estate. While competitors could not seem to stop the Owens family business, fractured family relationships and rivalries caused significant problems. In 1974, the conflict came to a head and the firm was split into three, one business line for each sibling. How the businesses fared and how each brother managed his company for the future are the subjects of the B case. Efforts by one branch of the family to avoid the kinds of problems that brought about the division of the original family business are outlined. Governance and ownership issues now faced by the next generation are highlighted. The C case brings participants up-to-date with the evolution of the Richard Owens family's first constitution and governance policies implemented to help protect the family firm for the future. The D case presents the next step in family and company governance, highlighting the most recent family constitution dated November 2002.

This four part case series follows the Richard Owens family through nearly one hundred years of evolution and change. The family business started with one grocery store in 1906 and, by 1974, had grown into a large private enterprise that included supermarkets, liquor stores and real estate. While competitors could not seem to stop the Owens family business, fractured family relationships and rivalries caused significant problems. In 1974, the conflict came to a head and the firm was split into three, one business line for each sibling. How the businesses fared and how each brother managed his company for the future are the subjects of the B case. Efforts by one branch of the family to avoid the kinds of problems that brought about the division of the original family business are outlined. Governance and ownership issues now faced by the next generation are highlighted. The C case brings participants up-to-date with the evolution of the Richard Owens family's first constitution and governance policies implemented to help protect the family firm for the future. The D case presents the next step in family and company governance, highlighting the most recent family constitution dated November 2002.

This four part case series follows the Richard Owens family through nearly one hundred years of evolution and change. The family business started with one grocery store in 1906 and, by 1974, had grown into a large private enterprise that included supermarkets, liquor stores and real estate. While competitors could not seem to stop the Owens family business, fractured family relationships and rivalries caused significant problems. In 1974, the conflict came to a head and the firm was split into three, one business line for each sibling. How the businesses fared and how each brother managed his company for the future are the subjects of the B case. Efforts by one branch of the family to avoid the kinds of problems that brought about the division of the original family business are outlined. Governance and ownership issues now faced by the next generation are highlighted. The C case brings participants up-to-date with the evolution of the Richard Owens family's first constitution and governance policies implemented to help protect the family firm for the future. The D case presents the next step in family and company governance, highlighting the most recent family constitution dated November 2002.

From the humble ambitions of two brothers, Hilti AG came a long way to win the 2003 Bertelsmann Prize. Hilti was a world leader in professional construction tools and equipment with sales approximating $2.8 billion, operations in 120 countries and a global workforce of around 15,120 who together shared in an award-winning corporate culture. Culture at Hilti, was inseparable from strategy. So when challenged at several points in their history, the company relied on the strength and underpinnings of its corporate culture to see it through. Now, with new governance changes afoot, Hilti would need to leverage this valuable resource once again.

 After over four centuries in business, the Beretta family's gun making enterprise stands at an important threshold. The family and its hometown have provided the cultural and philosophical underpinnings that have seen the company through good times and bad. Now, the firm must address a more insidious challenge. How to continue to grow and adapt to new market and competitive situations while retaining the core that brought the company to where it is today. The role of corporate culture is juxtaposed with stability in the face of change, dedication to craftsmanship and the latest technology, close-knit family bonds and an ardor for individualism. The exercise of seemingly contradictory business concepts and approaches is examined.

This two-part case study examines the implications of organizational structure and control issues on company management and strategy. Effective corporate governance and its role in efficient operations management is the focus of these cases.

This two-part case study examines the implications of organizational structure and control issues on company management and strategy. Effective corporate governance and its role in efficient operations management is the focus of these cases.

From its beginning in 1947, the Torvald Klaveness Group succeeded in the shipping business through innovation and the vision of one man, Torvald "TK" Klaveness. The company grew and prospered until 1989, when TK handed the reins over to the second generation. His eldest son remained true to his father's principals and business philosophy. As yet another management transition drew closer, the next generation considered changes to the founder's succession plan and the company's strategic approach.

For teaching purposes, this is the commentary-only version of the HBR case study. The case-only version is reprint R00314. The complete case study and commentary is reprint R00308. Mac Monroe had grand plans for Georgia Building Supplies, the company he had started with a friend almost 50 years ago, selling construction materials wholesale to contractors. In the mid-1980s, Mac bought out his disgruntled partner's share of the company and put his oldest son, Mac Monroe IV, at the helm. It was all falling into place. But Mac Four, as his parents called him, died tragically in a car accident. The family and the company never recovered. Mac sold GBS two years later. Now Mac is trying it again, bankrolling Carolina Construction Supply with his youngest boy, John "Little Bit" Monroe, at the helm. The tech-savvy Little Bit would like Mac and CCS to embrace the Internet for on-line transactions and service. But Mac keeps emphasizing sales, and he's lured two heavy-hitter salesmen from the competition--including his middle son, Mike Monroe. In its first two years, CCS has lost $1 million, and the ghost of Mac Four lingers at the company--Mac is constantly invoking his name, alluding to what Mac Four would have done if he were still alive. Complicating matters is the Monroe family's overprotective matriarch, Bea, who doesn't want to hear anything bad about her boys, and who'd like more time to spend with her 70-something husband. Mac's got plenty of doubts about CCS's future--that's why he's called on P. Dee Chambers, a consultant to small businesses, for advice. What should she tell him? Can Carolina Construction Supply be saved? In R00308 and R00315, five commentators, Gerry Boschwitz, Rudy Boschwitz, Mary F. Whiteside, Joe Mattos, and John L. Ward, review this fictional account and offer their advice.

The case looks at Thomas Mann’s fiction novel Buddenbrooks and traces the family business trajectory of the family at the center of the novel. Many family business issues are raised, including succession, intermingling of family and business money, supporting adult offspring, and competition.

Is the saying “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves” inevitable in a multi-generation family business?

Case A shows how a regional family company, threatened by national competition, needs to make changes to its structure and way of doing business or face extinction or sale. Case B shows the steps the business takes to make it succeed, including restructuring that involves eliminating long-time family managers and planning for succession. Case C shows post-transition successes and areas that still need work.

Case A shows how a regional family company, threatened by national competition, needs to make changes to its structure and way of doing business or face extinction or sale. Case B shows the steps the business takes to make it succeed, including restructuring that involves eliminating long-time family managers and planning for succession. Case C shows post-transition successes and areas that still need work.

Case A shows how a regional family company, threatened by national competition, needs to make changes to its structure and way of doing business or face extinction or sale. Case B shows the steps the business takes to make it succeed, including restructuring that involves eliminating long-time family managers and planning for succession. Case C shows post-transition successes and areas that still need work.

A successful, multi-generation manufacturing family business, with progressive human resource policies, weighs the pros and cons to family owners and company employees of selling the business in order to meet the challenge of global competition.

After the sale of their multi-generation family business, a family and business transitions. The family uses the sales contract to maintain its progressive human resource policies. The family organizes a family investment office, establishes foundations, and launches new ventures.

A family media enterprise with very strong family culture and values is in the third and fourth generation of ownership and governance. They face a crisis when a large number of family shareholders want to cash out their shares. What led to this situation? How could it have been avoided? How should it be resolved? LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Lack of succession and liquidity planning can harm the business through generations when it becomes a crisis.

An entrepreneurial couple—who has run a business that enabled them to raise and educate five children—are considering options for financing retirement that allow for two of their offspring to buy and run the business.

Students will evaluate whether or not, and how, to keep a business founded and run by first-generation entrepreneurs as a family business into the second generation run by siblings.

A successful third-generation family business explores whether or not to continue in business as a family into the fourth generation. If they do decide to move forward as a family business, how can they cultivate knowledge and interest among the forty-plus fourth-generation family members.

Based on this multi-generation family business' history, strategy, governance, and market, what does the future hold for the business and the family's involvement in it? Can succession work with co-CEOs?

How should this successful, entrepreneurial family business plan for leadership, ownership, and governance succession to the next generation?

Case A shows the options that exist for a successful transition of leadership from one generation to the next, based on a family's and company's unique history, structures and players. Case B shows successful leadership as a fluid, interactive process matching individual desires and potential with strategic business goals and opportunities.

Case A shows the options that exist for a successful transition of leadership from one generation to the next, based on a family's and company's unique history, structures and players. Case B shows successful leadership as a fluid, interactive process matching individual desires and potential with strategic business goals and opportunities.

A large family business in banking and ranching is shifting leadership to the next generation and has developed a protocol to select board members agreed upon by all. When the selection occurs, it is not made in accordance with the protocol and a third generation family member questions why the selection rules were changed by second generation members without input or vote. The case highlights the growing pains of developing fair processes and guidelines for nominating and selecting board members, meeting family expectations, communicating with constituents, and encouraging active roles in governance at the cousin-stage of a family business.

A large family business in banking and ranching is shifting leadership to the next generation and has developed a protocol to select board members agreed upon by all. When the selection occurs, it is not made in accordance with the protocol and a third generation family member questions why the selection rules were changed by second generation members without input or vote. The case highlights the growing pains of developing fair processes and guidelines for nominating and selecting board members, meeting family expectations, communicating with constituents, and encouraging active roles in governance at the cousin-stage of a family business.

When a consultant recommends an overhaul of the HR compensation practices that the family business is known for and prizes, what should be the next steps?

Six siblings with equal ownership conflict with each other depending on their roles as owners and/or owner managers. In this case, students will learn to clarify roles of ownership in terms of active/inactive in the business.

This technical note is a descriptive list of factors that are present in large, successful, long-term and/or multi-generation family businesses.

A second-generation, multi-billion dollar Asian family business, run for decades by six brothers, faces issues of ownership, family employment, management, leadership, governance, and succession as it transitions to the third-generation of siblings and cousins.

A successful five-generation family business group in India separates its ownership role from its operational management role to meet the needs of a more global economy. This includes hiring professional non-family managers of business units and including non-family directors on the corporate board.

Brothers in a multi-generation family business engage in a power struggle and the board must decide on a new leadership strategy.

A non-family board member of a multi-generation family business is tapped as CEO during a leadership crisis.

This technical note contains examples from other fields on the benefits of bonds of families, extended families, and communities for members of multi-generation family businesses.