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80% of the world's businesses are family businesses. And we're not just talking mom and pop stores here. Some of the world's largest corporations are family owned including Wal Mart, Ford, Carrefour and BMW to name just a few. It's also a fact that while family businesses are significantly more successful than their non–family counterparts, they also face some unique challenges. Succession planning, professionalization or integrating non–family members into the business are just a few of the unique challenges issues these organizations face. Here some of the world's top experts on family business give their insights into how to achieve long term sustained success.
Chris Stanley – Editor HSM Inspiring Ideas
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Tips from the Top
Continuity from one generation to the next is the biggest challenge family businesses face. According to Ernesto Poza, professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Scottsdale, a family business continuity is the result of a long, well executed process. In this article he specifies five best practices to keep in mind.
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Million Dollar Tales
The biggest challenge most family managed companies face is surviving from one generation to the next. Statistics have shown that only a third make it to the third generation. French fashion house Hermès is one company that has bucked this trend. Born as a harness workshop in the mid 1800's, six generations later it has become an iconic global fashion empire that sells “refined” – rather than luxury – goods. [Read +] |
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DELVING DEEPER
Professionalizing the Family Business: It's not what you think it is.
An exclusive article for written for HSM by John A. Davis, the world's leading family business expert. He is the faculty chair of the Families in Business program at Harvard Business School, and founder of the Owner Managed Business Institute, a consulting firm for family businesses.
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| MULTIMEDIA TOOLBOX |
 VIDEO The Cisneros Group of Companies is one of the largest privately held media, entertainment, telecommunications and consumer products organizations in the world. It is also a family business. Here two generations of the Cisneros family discuss together some of the keys to achieving successful and enduring family businesses. [watch video] |
| VIDEO Nigel Nicholson is a professor at the London Business School, where he leads the Family Business Research Initiative. Here he discusses why getting the family to speak with a single voice is so important and how to go about achieving that seemingly idealistic goal. [watch video] |
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| HSM NEWS |
| Free Online Seminar |
Discover time–tested truths about what every leader should know from two of the most trusted names in leadership. Join bestselling authors of The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, for this free online seminar on Wednesday, September 8th – a $99 value!
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| Free Audio Summaries of HSM Events |
HSM has joined forces with Soundview Executive Book Summaries, the global leader in business book summaries, to create World Business Forum Speaks and World Innovation Forum Speaks, a series of downloadable 10–15 minutes audio summaries for new and existing HSM and Soundview customers that focus on the best keynotes of recent HSM conferences.
If you have not done so yet, we encourage you to download and listen to the following audio summaries available for free, including: Bill George, Patrick Lencioni, Jeffrey Sachs, Bill Conaty, David Rubenstein, Kevin Roberts, and Paul Krugman.
To download go to www.summary.com/wbf |
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| RECOMMENDED READING |
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Family Wars: The Real Stories behind the Most Famous Family Business Feuds
By: Nigel Nicholson and Grant E. Gordon |
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