Our Best Advice for the Year Ahead

December 18, 2023 - Issue #104

An Innovation Challenge Can Help Employees Feel More Connected A Minneapolis-based firm challenged employee teams to design and build something that would help people in their local community.

Everyday Gratitude in Times of Uncertainty Gratitude leads to better relationships and encourages loyalty among our colleagues. This popular 2020 article has been updated for today's challenges.

Master Three Perilous Stages of Family Business Transition Avoiding these minefields before, during, and after succession will help both your business and your relationships. Leave your own thoughts here!

Keep the Founder's Entrepreneurial Spirit Alive in Future Generations While entrepreneurship often creates the family's wealth, making it part of the family culture and legacy is another matter entirely. Here's how.

Generative AI Can Help Family Businesses Innovate and Grow Technology can now take care of mundane tasks, and give people more time for satisfying, impactful work that requires creativity, emotional intelligence and empathy.

Why Don't You Educate Your Owners? Everyone agrees that families should train members to become competent owners and stewards of the family business – but few of them actually walk the talk.

Diverse Boards Help Family Businesses Expand Internationally Pushing into new markets across geographic borders requires a family business to be more focused on possibilities…and this is where boards can make the difference.

How to Avoid Family Business Disasters

How Family Businesses Survive Unexpected ‘Wild Cards’ From government upheaval to COVID, Poland has dealt with many devastating events over the past 30 years. Fifteen family firms told us how they survived it all.

Seven Things to Consider Before Selling the Family Firm Former family business owners shared their experiences in this panel discussion hosted by the University of St. Thomas's Family Business Center.

Will Your In-Laws Help or Hurt Your Family Business? As the Gucci and royal families show, in-laws can complicate things. Here's how family businesses can benefit from their perspectives and minimize conflict.

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It’s Complicated: Managing Succession in Cases of Divorce and Adoption

Why Enterprising Families Need a Code of Conduct

Will Your Family Brand Survive New Leadership?

From 'Passing Down' to 'Building Up': Rethinking Values in Family Firms

Popular Topics

Money

Financing, revenue, profits

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Staffing, succession, relationships

Manage

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Grow

Increase customers and revenue

Strategy

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Operations

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Recent

Your Investment Strategy Should Reflect Your Family Values and Goals

by Claudia Binz Astrachan, Anneleen Michiels, Massimo Baù, and Chris Graves / Practice Insight

A family investment policy defines how a family manages its collective financial assets in alignment with its shared values, goals, and risk preferences. Read more...

Families Can Overcome Generational Conflicts Over Technology

by Maria Annosi, Mat Hughes, Davide de Gennaro, Roberta Oppedisano, and Filomena Buonocore / Research Insight

A study of Italian firms shows how differences can be resolved, so the company can honor tradition and still make progress. Read more...

Ready to Lead: Building Confidence Across Generations

by Paul Edelman / Applied and Practice

When families treat readiness as something they cultivate together, the handoff feels less like a loss and more like a natural next step. Read more...

Define Your Legacy, and Strengthen Your Business and Your Impact

by Matthew Fox, Kimberly Wade-Benzoni, and Jeffrey Covin / Research Insight

Unless you clearly define what you want your legacy to be, your successors will interpret it in their own way -- and it might not be what you intended. Read more...

by Susan Lanz, Gary Burke, Kajsa Haag, and Omid Omidvar

Let the Next Generation of Family Firm Leaders Chart Their Own Path

by Klaus Lüber and Nadine Kammerlander

Listening to the Family: The Strategic Value of Surveys

by Claudia Binz Astrachan

Here Are the Next Gen's Biggest Worries

by Kimberly Eddleston

How to Plan for a Successful Succession

by Richard Eisenberg

Invite Your Next Gens to Leadership

by Kimberly Eddleston