A New Look at the
Business First/Family First Challenge
For years, family-owned businesses have been told about the importance of managing the family’s relationship to its business. It is one of the most significant challenges facing the family business, and meeting the challenge can be difficult. There is a new way to look at this issue that can improve the way you and your family manage the family/business relationship.
Every family business is vitally interested in attaining three things:
- Business prosperity
- Family harmony
- Personal well being.
Business prosperity is important because our individual and collective financial security depends on it. Family harmony is important because we are bound together for life in our families, and want to enjoy the family relationship. Personal well being is important because we each have our own goals for our lives and are driven to reach them.
Achieving all three of the goals is the ideal. It is what family businesses work hard to accomplish. The unfortunate reality is that instead of prosperity, harmony and well being, far too many family businesses experience under-performing businesses, family conflict and ambiguity about the future. More…
