Our Latest Articles

September 15, 2025 - Issue #150

Are Your Family and Business Thriving Together - Or Undermining Each Other? Like organisms in nature, the relationship between family and business can be mutually beneficial or detrimental. Here's how to strengthen both spheres.

Family CEOs May Encourage More Innovation Than Non-Family Leaders While professional non-family leadership may bring some advantages, the stability brought by family leaders may encourage employees to innovate without fear of failure.

Things to Consider When Transferring Family Business Ownership Family business succession involves transferring ownership as well as management. Family circumstances and past events lead to three types of ownership transfers.

Addressing Substance Use Disorders in a Family Enterprise When a family member struggles with addiction, the consequences can ripple throughout the firm and increase its risks.

What Family Firms Can Teach Us About Work-Life Balance Blurring work and personal lives can lead to stress and exhaustion. Family businesses do these four things to create healthier boundaries.

Will Your Successors See Themselves as Heirs or Entrepreneurs? Mentoring plays a huge role in shaping how the next generation views the role of family business leader, a study in China shows.

Hand Down the Family Business but Keep a Hand In Skip-generation entrepreneurship combines the wisdom of business founders with the energy and tech savviness of their grandchildren.

Outsource or Hire?

Are the 'Best Practices' All Wrong for Your Family Business? The best processes and systems come not from outside advisers and experts, but from how families actually live, relate to one another, and make decisions.

Family Culture Can Block (or Unlock) Innovation Low trust, resistance to change, and intergenerational communication gaps can prevent new strategies and collaboration from taking root.

Family Business Leaders' Fear of Failure Can Inhibit Next Gens When parents openly display fear of failing, it can unintentionally portray entrepreneurship as unsafe, undesirable, or even shameful. This doesn't help their successors or the business.

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Here Are the Next Gen's Biggest Worries

CEOs Who've Been Mentored Achieve Better Financial Results

Family Leaders: Can Your Business Still Sail Without You?

5 Practical Tips for Making Business Decisions With Family Members

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Recent

A New Way to Resolve Extreme Conflict in Family Businesses

by Doug Baumoel and Blair Trippe / Applied and Practice

Family members may feel “trapped” in conflicts, unable to resolve substantive issues without damaging their familial relationships. This often leads to disputes that persist for decades. Read more...

Merging With Another Family Firm is Safer and Smarter

by Francesco Chirico, Robert E Hoskisson, Seemantini Pathak, and Massimo Baù / Research Insight

Family business mergers enjoy greater harmony and better financial performance than mergers involving non-family firms. Read more...

Unready and Unadvised: The Silent Crisis in Family Wealth Transfer

by Srbuhi Avetisyan / Practice Insight

A study of 13,500 family firms shows that nearly half of heirs don’t know where the assets are -- and 3 in 5 wouldn’t know what to do if the founder died suddenly. Read more...

AI Adoption in Family Business: Balancing Trust and Tech

by Doug Gray, PhD / Practice Insight

Using AI can be risky in settings where confidentiality is key, but it can be indispensable in developing innovative services that clients expect. Here's how to harness it safely. Read more...

by Ritch Sorenson

When entrepreneurs raise entrepreneurs

by Nadine Kammerlander and Larissa Leitner

Consumers Love Local Brands. That's Good News For Family Businesses

by Philipp Jaufenthaler, Andreas Kallmuenzer, Sascha Kraus, and Alfredo De Massis

How Family Dynamics Shape Family Businesses

by Joseph Astrachan and Claudia Binz Astrachan

Family Business Succession Planning: 10 Golden Rules

by Tom Rüsen, Torsten Groth, and Arist von Schlippe

The Biggest Mistakes Family Businesses Make With Their Boards

by Kimberly Eddleston