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

AI in Family Business: Why Brain Capital Is Your Real Competitive Advantage

Family Offices Are Booming—But Do They Actually Work?

What Nonfamily Managers Need From Family Firm Leaders

Popular Topics

Money

Financing, revenue, profits

Team

Staffing, succession, relationships

Manage

Best practices for running the business

Grow

Increase customers and revenue

Strategy

Making better decisions

Operations

How the best firms run

Recent

How Families Can Re-Engage Reluctant Successors Without Pressure

by John Cater, Roland Kidwell, Megan Harper, and Marilyn Young / Research Insight

Successors recommit when roles align with their values, skills, and life stage—and when family dynamics allow earlier experiences to be reinterpreted. Read more...

How Families Shape Successor Motivation—and the Firm’s Long-Term Direction

by Alexandra Dawson / Research Insight

Family firms don’t have goals—people do. The rise and fall of Italy's Florio dynasty shows how successor motivation shapes the balance between growth, legacy, and community—and how families can build more durable, values-led leadership. Read more...

Family Offices Are Expanding Their Role

by Peter Vogel / Applied and Practice

As family attitudes towards wealth, purpose, and legacy evolve, their offices are doing more than just managing wealth, a study shows. Read more...

Will Your Nonfamily Employees Defend Your Business?

by Sarah Burrows, Craig Crossley, Catherine Faherty, and Jim Combs / Research Insight

A stewardship climate, where employees feel trusted and truly valued, mobilizes nonfamily employees to defend the family firm against reputational threats. Read more...

by Claudia Binz Astrachan

How to Run a Family Business Successfully

by Kerry Hannon

Why Does EOS/Traction Work So Well for Family Businesses?

by Sara Stern

Announcing Our 2024-25 Schulze Awards Winners

by Kimberly Eddleston and Mat Hughes

Rom-Coms Can Complicate Your Succession Planning

by Sara E. Miller

When Family Businesses Should Think Like Private Equity Firms

by Nadine Kammerlander and David Hoeflmayr