Family-owned businesses are a predominant form of business organization in the United States, yet such businesses tend to have relatively short life spans, often limited to the working life of the founder-owner. The author, an educator and expert in family businesses, describes the character and life cycle of the family business and offers guidance in two crucial areas: strategic business planning and planning the family's role in the business and its future. Ward offers an able analysis of these factors, providing sound advice to those involved with family businesses. Recommended. Elin B. Christianson, Library Consultant, Hobart, Ind. -Library Journal.
Exploring both the psychological and practical underpinnings of family businesses, an experienced management consultant presents invaluable advice on minimizing conflicts and maximizing business success. Charts.
Containing unique and valuable hints for building a better business, this book uses specific examples designed for different situations. Filled with suggestions and proven advice, this important guide offers valuable ideas on deciding which family members should control stock, who should first work in another company to gain experience, how to determine which individuals should make business decisions, and much more. Book jacket.
Navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business—and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most significant and numerous in the world. But surprisingly few resources exist to help navigate the unique challenges you face when you share the executive suite, financial statements, and holidays. How do you make the right decisions, critical to the long-term survival of any business, with the added challenge of having to do so within the context of a family? The HBR Family Business Handbook brings you sophisticated guidance and practical advice from family business experts Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer. Drawing on their decades-long experience working closely with a wide range of family businesses of all sizes around the world, the authors present proven methods and approaches for communicating effectively, managing conflict, building the right governance structures, and more. In the HBR Family Business Handbook you'll find: A new perspective on what makes family businesses succeed and fail A framework to help you make good decisions together Step-by-step guidance on managing change within your business family Key questions about wealth, unique to family businesses, that you can't afford to ignore Assessments to help you determine where you are—and where you want to go Stories of real companies, from Marchesi Antinori to Radio Flyer Chapter summaries you can use to reinforce what you've learned Keep this comprehensive guide with you to help you build, grow, and position your family business to thrive across generations. HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, and real-life stories, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack—whatever your role.
Good planning is more than just thinking ahead; businesses need a strategic approach to ensuring their success. Keeping the Family Business Healthy provides readers with a guide to strategic thinking, including how to maintain growth, how to shape business direction, preparing for new leadership, and working with a large and diverse family base.
Good planning is more than just thinking ahead; businesses need a strategic approach to ensuring their success. Keeping the Family Business Healthy provides readers with a guide to strategic thinking, including how to maintain growth, how to shape business direction, preparing for new leadership, and working with a large and diverse family base.
The cow is the most productive, efficient creature on earth. She will give you fresh milk, cream, butter, and cheese, build human health and happiness, and even turn a profit for homesteaders and small farmers who seek to offer her bounty to the local market or neighborhood. She will provide rich manure for your garden or land, and will enrich the quality of your life as you benefit from the resources of the natural world. Quite simply, the family that keeps a cow is a healthy family. Originally published in the early 1970s as The Cow Economy and reprinted many times over, Keeping a Family Cow has launched thousands of holistic small-scale dairy farmers and families raising healthy cows in accordance with their true nature. The book offers answers to frequently asked questions like, 'Should I get a cow?' and 'How Much Space do I need?' in addition to extensive information on: • The health benefits of untreated milk; • How to milk a cow effectively and with ease; • Choosing your dairy breed; • Drying off your cow; • Details on calving and breeding; • The importance of hay quality and how to properly feed your cow; • Fencing and pasture management; • Housing, water systems, and other supplies; • Treating milk fever and other diseases and disorders; • Making butter, yogurt, and cheese, and, of course . . . • . . . Everything else the conventional dairy industry doesn’t tell us! Now revised and updated to incorporate new information on the raw milk debate, the conversation about A1 vs. A2 milk, fully grassfed dairies, more practical advice for everyday chores, and updated procedures for cow emergencies. Keeping a Family Cow has not only stood the test of time, it still remains the go-to inspirational manual for raising a family milk cow nearly forty years after its first publication. Joann Grohman has a lifetime of practical experience that has been bound into this one volume and presented in the spirit of fun and learning.
An exceptional new work on family business, showing how to maintain a balanced relationship between the family and the company, and ensure satisfactory business results. This roadmap helps the reader to build better managed and more stable family firms.
