Attendees packed the hotel's Fairfax Ballroom to hear the panel presentations and keynote addresses.

Jim Ethier, third-generation chairman of Bush Brothers & Co., was among the panelists who offered insights on board composition, the relationship between management and the board, succession planning and board governance practices in a session entitled "Private Company Boards -- One Size Doesn't Fit All."

Directors & Boards' Jim Kristie moderated a panel focusing on "Private Board Roles, Committees and Independence." Panelists included Dave Phillips, chairman of Midmark Corporation (a family company in the fourth generation of leadership) and a director on multiple other private and public company boards.

A panel presentation addressing "Private Company Director Service: Risks and Responsibility" included David Meachin, who has served on the boards of public, private and family-controlled companies, and management consultant George Isaac, who has served on numerous public and private boards, including several Isaac family business boards.

Panelists at a session entitled "The Effective Private Board" included Jill Kanin-Lovers, a member of the boards of Dot Foods, a family company. Dan Hatzenbuehler, chairman of E. Ritter & Company, a fifth-generation family business, was among the panelists who spoke about "Identifying, Securing and Paying the Best Private Company Board Members."

The conference also featured breakout sessions, including one geared toward family company boards. Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. and a former undersecretary of the Army, delivered the conference's closing keynote address, entitled "Lessons for Private Boards from the Public Company World."

The Private Company Governance Summit 2013's premiere conference partner was Deloitte. Conference partners were Heidrick & Struggles, Diligent and Chubb.

How will further growth of the corporate burial behemoth affect family funeral homes? According to National Funeral Directors Association spokeswoman Jessica Koth, about 86% of the funeral homes in the U.S. are family-owned. These business owners "are watching the news with great interest," Koth tells Family Business. "Family-owned funeral homes are taking a wait-and-see approach."

Regulatory authorities may require SCI and Stewart to make divestitures before combining in order to avoid antitrust concerns, Koth notes. This means some funeral homes that had been sold to the conglomerates by their founding families may once again be family-owned.

SCI has made big acquisitions before. In 2006, it bought out the Alderwoods Group, which at the time was the industry's No. 2 funeral home operator, for $856 million, the Houston Chronicle noted.

Stewart Enterprises itself is a family-controlled company. Founded in 1910 by Albert Stewart, it expanded in the 1980s from its base in Louisiana and Texas into Florida, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. The company went public in 1991. Chairman Frank B. Stewart Jr., 76, the founder's grandson, has a 30% stake in the company.

Daniel Isard, president of funeral industry consulting firm Foresight Companies, speculates that a potential estate tax liability for Frank Stewart's heirs drove the decision to merge. SCI had tried unsuccessfully to take over Stewart Enterprises in 2008. "It was just a matter of egos being put aside and logic taking over," Isard tells Family Business.

As for potential ramifications for family-owned competitors, "I don't think [the merger] is going to have any marked effect on family-owned or privately owned funeral homes," Isard comments. He says family funeral home operators should not be concerned about price competition from the combined company. "Neither [SCI nor Stewart] was price-focused," Isard says.

But John Bachman, 56, the eighth-generation operator of Bachman Funeral Home in Strasburg, Pa., says has been experiencing price competition from corporate consolidators for years. "They can buy in bulk and keep salaries low," he notes.

In the past, says Bachman, whose business was founded in 1769, his family could avoid the expense of advertising. "Word of mouth has been very effective for us," he says. "But now, we have a lot of people shopping for price." Today's price-sensitive clients, for example, are opting for inexpensive veneer caskets to save on funeral costs, he notes. "I haven't sold a cherry casket in three years."

Societal factors, such as increased mobility, have had an effect as well, Bachman says. "People are not loyal to a particular funeral home just because it's in their town." And many municipalities have more funeral homes than can be sustained, given the death rate of their populations, Bachman observes.

Bachman, who once ran three funeral homes, now operates only one. "There isn't a lot of money in this business if you're small," he says.

Thomas J. Pritzker, executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, set the tone for the conference with his opening keynote address, in which he shared the lessons he learned about business and life.

In a keynote address entitled "Reclaiming Our Heritage," Bernadette Castro, CEO of Castro Convertibles, reminisced about starring as a young girl in the furniture company's early television ads. The business, founded by her father, was sold in 1993 to a company that eliminated the Castro name and later went out of business. Today, Castro and her children have revived the Castro Convertibles brand.

Dini Pickering, vice chairman of the board of directors at The Biltmore Company, presented the closing keynote speech, entitled "Governance, Bringing in Outside Talent and the Successful Transition." Pickering, a fourth-generation descendant of George Vanderbilt whose family operates the Inn on Biltmore Estate and related businesses, presented the history of the family enterprise, her family's succession journey and the policies and procedures they have established.

Transitions East 2013 also featured panel discussions centered on several main topic areas: "Family and Business Challenges by Generational Stage," "Getting Succession Right," "Developing the Next Generation for Leadership and Ownership" and Harnessing the Expertise of Non-Family Executives." Other conference offerings included breakout sessions, a workshop and a group dinner at the family-owned Columbia Restaurant in historic Ybor City.

A full report of Transitions East 2013 will be published in the July/August 2013 issue of Family Business Magazine.

Transitions West 2013 will be held Nov. 13-15 at the Marriott Coronado Island Resort in San Diego. For information, see www.familybusinessmagazine.com/transitions.

Last month, Cablevision Systems Corp. announced that Kristin Dolan, wife of CEO James Dolan, had been promoted -- a few weeks after the company said the Dolans had separated on a trial basis, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Kristin Dolan has worked at Cablevision for 23 years; she and her husband met at the company, the Journal report said. Her role at the company has been increasing since 2011. Her new duties will include sales oversight of cable TV, Internet and voice products, plus product management and marketing, according to the Journal. Prior to her promotion, she had participated in company earnings calls alongside her husband, the article noted.

What happens when you don't want your ex in your life, but you need that person in your business? Family Business Magazine pondered that question back in 2008. Our article cited a study by family business researchers Patricia Cole and Kit Johnson of nine former couples who despite their breakup continued working as business partners.

Cole and Johnson told Family Business that the couples trusted each other in business matters -- even if trust in their personal relationship had been violated through infidelity! "They were able to compartmentalize business trust as separate from their personal relationship," Johnson said.

In other words: Even if someone turns out not to be your soulmate, he or she may be the best person for the job at your company.

Of course, trust goes only so far. As our 2008 article pointed out, family business advisers say carefully negotiated documents such as a shareholders' agreement and a buy/sell agreement are crucial when former romantic partners continue as "co-preneurs."

As for Cablevision, James and Kristin Dolans' marital troubles don't seem to have altered the company's view toward married-ins. As the Wall Street Journal article noted, at the same time Cablevision announced Kristin's promotion, it also announced that it had promoted Brian Sweeney to a new position focused on corporate strategy. Sweeney is married to James Dolan's sister.

A board of directors that includes experienced outside members can help a family business leader to spot changes on the horizon and determine which products, processes or procedures should be rethought. But every so often, some strategic rethinking should be applied to the board itself.

At a roundtable discussion in New York in December, a group of prominent private company directors noted that while many business owners engage in rigorous planning to form their boards, they don't put any thought into changing their boards for the future. While term-limiting directors is considered a best practice for public companies, all too often private companies keep the same group of directors on their boards past their ability to help take the business to the next level.

Your company's concerns will change as your business grows, your products mature and your family prepares to transition to the next generation. Your board should evolve in parallel to the evolution of your business. Think about where you see your company in five years. Then consider bringing new members onto your board who have already taken their businesses to that place and beyond.

A group of business owners and directors will be discussing this and other topics at the Private Company Governance Summit, a national conference focused on the unique governance challenges facing family-owned and other closely held businesses. The Summit, presented jointly by Family Business Magazine and Directors & Boards Magazine, will be held May 16-17, 2013 in Washington, D.C. You can learn more about this exciting new conference at mlr.cvent.com/pcgs2013.

Every year, take some time to ask yourself these questions: What do you want from your board? And are your current directors capable of giving you what you need?

As it turns out, these families aren't just sharing the secrets of their success; they're fostering healthy family relationships and resilience in future generations.

Bruce Feiler, a New York Times columnist on faith and family and a bestselling author, recently wrote about the benefits of developing "a strong family narrative."

Feiler cited a study by psychologists Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush that assessed how much children knew about their family history. The kids who knew more family stories had a greater sense of control over their lives and higher self-esteem than their peers. They also believed that their families functioned more effectively when compared with kids who didn't know much about their families' past. And after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the children with a strong sense of family history were better able to cope with the fear and stress that gripped the nation.

According to Feiler, Duke's term for this phenomenon is a strong "intergenerational self." Duke told Feiler that the most healthful narrative includes an honest account of the family's lean years as well as the good times, with a moral along the lines of, "No matter what happened, we always stuck together as a family."

Sticking together as a family doesn't mean that family members must always agree on everything. As we note in The Family Business Conflict Resolution Handbook, conflict isn't on its face a negative thing; rather, it's an opportunity for all parties to air their concerns and work collaboratively to arrive at a solution that's best for the group.

The most effective families don't neglect the periods of difficulty and conflict when telling their family stories. But they do put anecdotes into a positive framework. Feiler wrote:

When faced with a challenge, happy families, like happy people, just add a new chapter to their life story that shows them overcoming the hardship.

We in the family business community are grateful to those who share their family narrative with others.

Founder to G2. The generation gap between the founding entrepreneur and his/her children is a quintessential challenge. Another classic source of strife stems from sibling rivalry. But there are other issues, as well.

• By the time the second generation comes aboard, most businesses have grown. Middle managers must be hired. The business may have to take on debt to fund its expansion.
• At the founder stage, there was a single decision maker; now, decisions are made by a group of family members, and perhaps key non-family managers as well. Consensus building is required.
• It may be difficult for the founding parents to accept their children as competent businesspeople and to relinquish control of their other "baby" -- the business.
• Siblings must begin to think of each other in a new way: They are now business partners as well as brothers and sisters. The presumption of equality in a sibling relationship poses problems when siblings have different business roles.
• The addition of spouses/significant others to the family can be a source of stress.
• The family must determine how the founder's retirement will be funded.

G2 to G3. Many family business experts say that this is the most difficult generational transition of all. The exponential increase in the number of heirs results in complexity that can overwhelm a family, causing a return to the proverbial "shirtsleeves."

• In order to support a larger group of family members, the business must grow significantly.
• Unlike G2 siblings, the G3 cousins didn't all grow up in the same home; they lack a shared history.
• A larger shareholder group requires a formal decision-making structure.
• An imbalance in ownership can occur if one of the family branches has more G3 descendants than the others.
• Conflicts can develop between active and inactive owners over payment of dividends.
• For these reasons, many business families consolidate ownership -- known as "pruning the family tree" -- at this stage. This process can cause resentment.

G3 to G4+. By this point, the family is likely to be widely dispersed; they are scattered all over the country, or even around the world. Some of the cousins may not even know each other.

• Later generations may not feel the same connection to the founder and the business that their forebears had.
• With a large shareholder group, it's impractical for everyone to vote. The family must develop a representative governance structure.
• Voting blocs can arise within and between family branches.
• Differences between active and inactive owners are magnified. Inactive owners may feel ignored by company managers.
• Younger-generation members may not take a stewardship approach to the family's wealth.
• Family members who rely on dividends to support their lifestyles may be more risk-averse than those who work in the business.

How does a family manage these challenges? By instituting policies (covering family employment, share inheritance, premarital agreements, etc.), creating family documents (like a mission statement and family constitution), developing governance structures (an independent board and a family council), communicating constantly and seeking outside help.

I will be discussing these issues, along with a panel of business owners representing the second, third and fifth generation of their families, at the Transitions East 2013 conference in Tampa on April 18. The panelists will discuss the work their families have done to meet the challenges of the current generation and to set themselves on the right track for the future.

The greater the number of people involved in a family enterprise, the wider the disparity of interests, talents and concerns. This diversity need not be a source of strife. Indeed, it can be a family's great strength -- if family stakeholders work on their relationships at every generational stage.

But every now and again, a well-publicized piece of family business news comes along to undermine our efforts.

Take the recent report of changes at the helm of Pilot Flying J, based in Knoxville, Tenn. In September 2012, the company hired John Compton to replace family CEO Jimmy Haslam, who announced he was stepping down. But on February 11 -- just five months later -- Haslam announced he was returning to the helm of his family business and bumping Compton to another position.

Now, Pilot Flying J is no mom-and-pop shop -- it's North America's largest operator of travel centers and travel plazas, with more than 600 such outlets. And John Compton isn't a newly minted business school grad. Before joining Pilot, he was president of PepsiCo, and he had been considered a leading candidate to replace Indra Nooyi as chairman and CEO of the soda giant.

Haslam's original intent in vacating the top job at Pilot was to run the Cleveland Browns, the struggling NFL football team he bought for $1 billion in August 2012. But then he hired Joe Banner, former president of the Philadelphia Eagles, to be CEO of the Browns; Rob Chudzinski, former Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator, to be the coach; and Mike Lombardi, the Browns' former personnel executive turned TV analyst, to return to the team as VP of player personnel.

With seasoned football veterans in place to work on fixing the Browns' problems, Haslam evidently felt he didn't have enough to do over there. So the prodigal son returned to the business his father founded in 1958.

Haslam told the Knoxville News Sentinel that he was coming back to Pilot simply because he missed it. Haslam said:

"It's not at all about John, it's more about Jimmy having a change of heart in terms of what he wanted to do ... I realize people will look at it in different ways but that's the reality."

What will Compton do now? According to the News Sentinel, he "will work as a strategic adviser to Pilot Flying J, the Browns and the Haslam family." Asked by the newspaper whether observers are likely to view the role change as a demotion for Compton, Haslam said, "people will read into it what they want to."

In an interview with the News Sentinel, Compton appeared to be taking the switch in stride. He said he wasn't angry about the change, there had been no disagreements about the way he ran Pilot and that he wanted to help Haslam run all of his businesses.

Compton told the paper that he joined Pilot Flying J "with my eyes wide open."

"I think if I had started at age 21 or 22 building a company with my family, it would be hard to walk away from, so I understand."

Bookies who are taking bets on the Cleveland Browns' win-loss record next season might want to add a wager on how long John Compton continues to work with Jimmy Haslam.

In PwC's latest family business survey, "attracting the right talent" was one of the top four challenges that U.S. family business leaders said they would face in the next five years. Let's hope Compton's story doesn't make that challenge even more daunting.

Last September Mikael Ohlsson, non-family CEO of the 79-year-old company, announced the Swedish furniture retailer's ambitious plan to double the pace of its expansion. Ohlsson -- who is scheduled to leave the company in September 2013 -- told the Wall Street Journal that by 2020 the chain would open 20 to 25 stores per year, compared with its present pace of six to 12 new openings annually.

As the Financial Times recounted in a Jan. 25 report, Kamprad said in an interview with the Swedish tabolid, Expressen, that these plans were news to him -- and that he wasn't thrilled with them. According to the FT's account, Kamprad told the tabloid:

"I talked with my secretary who said what was in [Swedish newspaper] Dagens Industri that we had record profits and sales and that we should build 25 new stores a year. I rang the chairman and asked how is that possible.

"We have spoken about building 10-12 stores a year until 2020 and I don't know who has sent out this information [about 20-25]."

Kamprad was emphatic in a subsequent statement to the FT: "I believe that the number of new stores should be less than what was communicated from management," the statement said.

Kamprad no longer has a formal role at Ikea, though he remains a senior adviser on the board. His family controls the company via a complex ownership structure. His three sons all have board positions in the family enterprise, "but it is unclear which, if any, will wield the ultimate power," the FT noted in a follow-up report on Jan. 30.

In responding to Kamprad, the company "underscor[ed] that the number of stores was a management decision," according to the FT's Jan. 25 account. The company said:

"There is a decision in the board where Ingvar Kamprad is a senior adviser to have a growth of 5 per cent from existing stores and 5 per cent from new stores every year. For that, 20-25 stores are needed."

But the Jan. 30 FT report said that Ikea executives "have been scrambling to play down the story," contending that the media were blowing it out of proportion and stressing that both management and the board agree that sales should be increased by 10% each year.

In the Jan. 30 report, the FT quoted Ikea's chairman, Göran Grosskopf:

"To make sure there is no misunderstanding, every single store that will be built will be examined by the board again. This is not a carte blanche for management to go ahead and build as many stores as they like."

The Jan. 25 FT report said Kamprad's remarks signal that "conflict appears to be brewing at the top of Ikea" and that "his comments caused consternation among some Ikea executives," especially since the plans had been announced four months earlier. The article cited Ikea officials who stressed that "decisions are made by management and the board."

The Jan. 30 article said some observers "worry that the current management and board may be trying to minimise Mr. Kamprad's massive influence at the company." One Ikea official reportedly said, "Why would you want to listen to an old man?"

So what's the lesson here? Is it that an 86-year-old founder should step out of the way and let the executives run the company? Or is it that the executives must take extra care to ensure that the company board and the key family member are kept fully in the loop?

What do you think?