Family Business

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How Can the Family Business Cope When a Key Non-family Exec Leaves?

NOTE TO TEACHERS: The downloadable supporting document (above) includes material to guide classroom discussion. This case is based on a real family business, although the specifics have been changed Read More...

Category: Education and Teaching

Authors: Kimberly Eddleston and Madison Mailey

Trust Me: I'm a Salesman

Entrepreneurs must believe in their products or services deeply enough to explain their worth to potential customers or clients. For most, this means learning to sell for the very first time -- an Read More...

Category: Commentary

Author: Kimberly Eddleston

Thriving or Trapped in the Family Business?

For some individuals, working in a family business can be an incredible gift.  For others, it's a prison without any chance of parole.  For those who are feeling trapped in the family Read More...

Category: Commentary

Author: Michael Klein

When entrepreneurs raise entrepreneurs

Family businesses are the backbone of many economies. However, many potential successors of family businesses decide not to join the family business at first, but to become entrepreneurs themselves. Read More...

Category: Applied and Practice

Authors: Nadine Kammerlander and Larissa Leitner

How Family Firms Can Innovate With Less

Family firms often face limits on the financial and human capital available to them. But in Germany, a class of small- to medium-sized businesses known as the "Mittlestand" has learned to transcend Read More...

Category: Commentary

Author: Alfredo De Massis

'There's No Birthright' and Other Tips for Raising Entrepreneurial Leaders

Joe Brito, the third-generation head of C.B. Utility Co. in Bristol, Rhode Island, started his career in the family business as a laborer.  He firmly believes that anybody entering their family Read More...

Category: Commentary

Author: Kimberly Eddleston

How Family Business Leaders Can Encourage Both Devotion and Performance

Family businesses have unique strengths and unique problems because they blend two identities -- "family" and "business" -- whose priorities are often at odds. While the family identity nurtures Read More...

Category: Applied and Practice

Authors: Roland Kidwell and Kathryn Kloepfer

Outside Leadership Can Save the Family Business

Cultures around the world acknowledge just how difficult it can be for a family-run enterprise to sustain itself over time. Many have their own version of the adage that family businesses go from Read More...

Category: Commentary

Author: Robert Sher

Learn to Defend Your Family Firm

While the world around them is changing at a faster and faster pace in the midst of uncertainty, family firms are often a beacon of stability and dependability in our society. Although subject to the Read More...

Category: Education and Teaching

Authors: Franz Kellermanns and Nadine Kammerlander

How New Solo Entrepreneurs Can Think Through Their Finances

Today people can no longer count on a steady paycheck in a predictable amount from an employer. We're seeing ever-growing numbers of “unintended entrepreneurs” -- once-employed people forced to Read More...

Category: Education and Teaching

Author: Roy Carriker