The first ever comprehensive guide to family business succession planning. This book covers everything from what family business ownership is and how to structure ownership bylaws to business structure, leadership transition, and how a founder exits the business. Drawing on original research, case studies, and white papers, Family Business Succession is a thorough, complete, and "required reading" for every family member working in a family business.
In 1997, family business owner Mitchell Kaneff became the CEO of his own family's business, Arkay Packaging. Negotiating complex succession issues, family politics and emotional fallout with relatives he'd known all his life, Mitchell became convinced there had to be a more effective - and less stressful - way to alleviate the powerful transition themes that can so often derail a family business. Mitchell emerged successful - although not unscathed - and the idea of writing about his experiences to help other people took hold. The result: "Taking Over: Insider Tips from a Third Generation CEO," a compilation of the many experiences - both his own and those of his friends and associates - Mitchell recorded over the years. In "Taking Over," Mitchell brings fresh insights and practical tools to anyone involved in family businesses today - regardless of their role. With its unique use of family anecdotes, combined with Mitchell's strong business acumen, "Taking Over" is a must-read for anyone involved in - or interested in becoming a part of - a family business today.
Balancing the benefits and burdens of a family-owned business Working with family complicates the already daunting task of owning a business, and it’s tough not to take work problems home with you. The best approach is to realize that family is family . . . and business is business. Business is Business: Reality Checks for Family-Owned Companies is a common-sense manual for survival that dispels myths such as the power of teamwork and gender or birth-order differences in ability. Engagingly written, with no-nonsense tips and real-life examples, this defiant treatise will guide you to • Harness your employees’—and your own—inherent strengths • Trust your instincts and the people you work with • Balance lifelong relationships with fair treatment of nonfamily employees Authors Kathy Kolbe and Amy Bruske hone decades of experience helping family businesses thrive—and running their own for more than 30 years—into practical, actionable advice for how to hire family members, how to work with them, and how—when necessary—to fire them. The solutions are not always easy, but understanding the frequent pitfalls of working with family is an investment that could pay back over generations. Business is Business will show you how to find joy while developing a sustainable family-owned company.
Helps to prepare for passing the family business on to the next generation. Leaders will learn how to create a succession plan; how to develop opportunities for succession candidates; how to build consensus with the family and leaders on succession plans and finally leaders will learn when and how to let go of their own role in the business.
Many owners of family businesses dream of passing the torch to their next generation, but only about thirty percent will realize that goal. In Secrets to Succession, family business owner Gerard Gust opens the door to reveal how he and his father dodged the grim statistics to make sure their company would survive the transition. The key was finding a way to lead, govern, and work together as the lines between parent and child, boss and employee, were blurred, stressed, and tested. After working in his family business for almost twenty years, Gust gained an in-depth look at the dynamics of family relationships and the succession process. That knowledge inspired him to develop a strategy called the PIE method that shows exiting owner and successor how to increase their chances of a successful transition. As Gust journeys through that process, from challenge and setback to achievement and success, he reflects on his own experience with humour and honesty. Throughout he offers practical advice to help current owners and successors navigate the struggles that family businesses face during a transition. Secrets to Succession is an indispensable guide to the inner workings of a successful family business transition from beginning to end.
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.
The first book to tell the story of one of the world’s most influential media businesses, The Family Business draws on more than 70 interviews with company insiders as well as book-industry luminaries to present the Ingram story and how a little-known Nashville-based company grew to play a pivotal role in transforming book publishing around the world. The history of the Ingram Content Group is one of the most important and remarkable business stories that almost no one knows. Launched as a favor to a family friend, it started as a local textbook distributor—one tiny division within a thriving corporation focused on oil, construction supplies, and shipping. It grew into the world’s largest book wholesaler, then into the most influential and innovative supplier of infrastructure and services to publishers around the world. Over the past 50 years, from its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingram has played a pivotal role in modernizing the book business. Two members of the founding family have led the way: Bronson Ingram, a tough-minded industrialist who instinctively recognized a golden opportunity to apply modern efficiencies to antiquated logistical systems, and Bronson’s son John Ingram, an “intrapreneur” with a keen understanding of both the opportunities and the risks created by the new digital technologies. Led by these two brilliant managers, Ingram has used its unparalleled industry-wide connections to help transform book publishing from a tradition-bound business into a dynamic, global twenty-first century powerhouse. Now, for the first time, The Family Business captures the whole story. In its pages, readers will learn about: The introduction of the Ingram microfiche reader in 1972 and how it catapulted book retailing into the electronic eraIngram’s network of coast-to-coast distribution centers turning U.S. book publishing into a truly national business for the first timeIngram using fast-growing video, software, magazine, and international wholesaling operations to create a phenomenal record of expansion, growing from a million-dollar company into a billion-dollar giant in just two decadesTwo of book publishing’s most powerful organizations—Ingram and Barnes & Noble—almost coming within a hair’s breadth of merging, and how the deal fell apart at the eleventh hourIngram’s unparalleled ability to rapidly fulfill product orders empowering Amazon’s unique customer service model and enabling its explosive growthLightning Source, a technological marvel spawned by Ingram, converting the “long tail” of niche books from a costly headache for publishers and retailers into a steady source of profitable salesIngram’s transformation of the book supply chain enabling countless booksellers and publishers to survive and even thrive in the disruptive era of Covid-19 Today, with Ingram’s expanding portfolio of service and infrastructure businesses playing an ever-growing role in the world of publishing, the company stands ready to help lead the industry into an era of even more dramatic change. The Family Business is the first book to recount the story of this strategic powerhouse that everyone in the publishing industry does business with, and that practically everyone admires—but that few people really understand. A must-read for people in the book business and the world of media, and anyone else who wants to understand how this vastly influential industry really works, this book fascinates with the story of the ways today’s electronic information technologies are transforming the world.
This book explores the relationship between families, firms, and regions and the extent to which these relationships contribute to regional economic and social development. Although family business participation in economic activities has been a common phenomenon since pre-industrial societies, and its importance has evolved throughout time and across spatial contexts, the book suggests that these factors have often been neglected in family business and regional studies. Taking this research gap into account, the book aims to deepen our understanding of the role family firms play in the regional economy. In particular, it explores two seldom studied questions. Firstly, what role do family firms play in regional development? Secondly, how do different spatial regional contexts shape family firm operations and performance? Family Business and Regional Development presents a model of "spatial familiness" and uses themes such as productivity, networks and competitiveness to shed new light on family businesses. Moreover, it approaches the juxtaposition between family business and regional studies to encourage the cross-fertilisation of ideas, theories, and research methods between the two fields. Bringing together leading experts in entrepreneurship, regional economics, and economic geography, this book will be a valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policymakers interested in family firms, regional studies and economic geography.
"In this honest and practical guide, Michael Klein shares his research findings and insights on how individuals get trapped in their family business, why they don't leave, and what can be done about it. Based on interviews with family business members, owners, and their advisors, Trapped in the Family Business sheds light on this common yet unexamined problem and offers solutions"--Page 4 of cover.
