Family Business Succession Planning

business life cycle

Family Business Owner Driving the Kids Crazy – Someone Call Security

Family Business Owner Driving the Kids Crazy – Someone Call Security

Last month I was speaking at a convention in Vancouver and took a question from the audience that made me laugh, even though I’d heard versions of the question before: “How do I get my 85-year-old father to stop coming to the office and causing all sorts of disruption?” Before I could answer someone in […]

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Long Odds That Family Is Best Suited to Lead Your Business

Odds That Family Is Best Suited To Lead Your Business is Like Hitting a Hole-In-One

It was on the 18th green that a friend who owns a successful executive search firm answered a question about family business leadership that had challenged me from the very first day I sat down to write Every Family’s Business. Finally the penny dropped. As he stared at his improbable 60-foot putt he opined that […]

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Isn’t It Time You Bought Your Competitor Lunch?

Business Succession Planning: Isn’t It Time You Bought Your Competitor Lunch?

For me, business has always been about dominating the competition – not just beating them but seriously overpowering them. Personal enmity has never driven this approach but rather a kind of institutional loathing underpinned by the idea that there is a finite number of customers worth battling for. I have never sought my inspiration from […]

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Why Do Family Business Owners Often Die at their Desk?

I was speaking to a friend who owns a successful manufacturing business and asked him when he plans to sell his business”. His response echoed something that I’m hearing more and more from business owners in my audience. “I can’t afford to sell – if I sell and take the proceeds and invest in this […]

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The M&A Industry Needs Its Own Family Business Awards

When the world’s largest speakers’ bureau sent me an email announcing that it had given me its Speaker of the Year Award, I was awash with emotion. My ego swelling with self-congratulation, I proceeded to moonwalk across my office – not pretty.

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