Family Business General Interest Articles Archives - Page 3 of 3

Parenting Styles and Family Business

“As ye sow, so shall ye reap” Recent conversations with other family business advisers confirm increasing exposure to business families with serious “fossilisation” issues. Naming no names, the problem seems most prevalent in families with seriously aged founder/owners (70 and 80-year-olds) from traditional European backgrounds. However, they don’t own all of this space – it’s […]

Saltwater Crocodile

Family Conflicts: The Apex Factor The challenges presented by dominant parents/entrepreneurs The Australian saltwater crocodile is an apex predator – it sits at the top of its food chain. An adult croc faces few natural threats, other than man, and ferociously uses its considerable bulk to assert dominion over its chosen territory. Many family businesses […]

Risk Management for Business Families

A key characteristic of all enduring business families is their willingness to do whatever is necessary to adequately and appropriately manage all significant risks and threats to their continuity, as a family group. This applies however the group re-invents itself, from generation to generation. Conversely, the most common cause of business family failure is the […]

Criteria for choosing trustworthy advisers for families in business

General Concept Professional advisers should be an investment in peace of mind. Basic compliance work excepted, their value should comfortably exceed the cost of their fees, in respect of their contributions to some or all of: Family success – financial, social and reputational. Family harmony – facilitating communication, problem solving and conflict management processes. Family […]

Brainstorming Process

Brainstorming is the best-known and most widely used technique for stimulating creative group thinking and for generating a broad range of options in response to just about any issue or challenge. The process was developed and the name initially coined by Alex Osborne, an American, in 1939. He defined brainstorming to mean: ‘A listing […]

Bob Jane’s Family Feud

“For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26-28) Bob Jane was an Australian icon – a revered racing driver, entrepreneur businessman and multi-millionaire – a classic self-made success story. But where is he now? After 5 years of litigation he’s […]

Australian Sea Lions

A Family Business is like: an Australian Sea Lion because … … they often fail to define the family’s ground rules. Australian Sea Lion (Neophoca cinerea) facts: Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Mammalia; Order: Carnivora; Suborder: Pinnipedia; Family: Otariidae; Subfamily: Otariinae; Genus: Neophoca; Species: Phew! Sea Lions have external ears; Seals have internal […]