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Learning to Delegate by Degrees

Published August 30, 1993 Susan Lazar |

“Delegation deficiency” is not a phrase coined by psychologists, but it's a classic trait, especially among business owners who have a driving need to control. The impact can be devastati...

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What Your Banker Needs To Know

Published May 30, 1993 Bonnie M. Brown |

In late march, President Clinton announced changes in banking regulations which will allow banks to make more “character loans” to small business owners, loans that are based primarily on...

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'Why Does This Kid Want To Work?'

Published May 30, 1993 William G. Mennen IV |

When the family hierarchy decides to sell the business, members of the younger generation are often left out in the cold. I was caught in just such a situation, which few outsiders can, or want to, un...

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Key Choices To Be Made Before Planning Starts

Published May 30, 1993 Peter Davis |

Succession planning has three objectives: to efficiently and fairly distribute assets from older to younger generations; to pass control of the business in a way that will ensure effective business l...

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Is There a Cure for Managerial Burnout?

Published May 30, 1993 James E. Barrett |

Even successful, affluent, healthy CEOs can lead (in Henry David Thoreau's words) “lives of quiet desperation.” They're fresh out of challenges. They hate the business. They don't like th...

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Family Employees Should Not Be Fireproof

Published May 30, 1993 Leon Danco |

Business owners tend to pussyfoot when faced with the necessity of firing a family member. They want to be loved, they agonize. They just don't like to fire anybody, let alone a relative: “If I...

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How To Build A Dynasty

Published May 30, 1993 Howard Muson |

The Beretta family has been making guns for the world's armies, kings and princes, and sportsmen for nearly five centuries. They trace their origins to one Bartolomeo Beretta, born before 1498, one o...

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Anticipating the Needs of the Grandkids

Published May 30, 1993 Mike Cohn |

After Mort Spahn and his wife, Shirley, sold their chain of toy stores they began working diligently on their estate plan. As part of the plan, Mort, 70, and Shirley, 66, wanted to do something for t...

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Why Some Family Firms Need a Scapegoat

Published May 30, 1993 Suzanne Stier |

The Lowrey family owns an elite private school on 150 acres of land in California's Orange County. Along with the parents, Bill and Mary, the school's founders, three of the Lowreys' married children ...

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Sweet Company, Bitter Fight

Published May 30, 1993 Charles Storch |

Last April The Chicago Tribune reported on a family feud at the Blommer Chocolate Co., a $150 million confection maker in Chicago. The battle between the heirs of two of the three brothers who founde...

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Twelve Tasks in Succession

Published May 30, 1993 Ivan Lansberg |

In my first session with owners of a family business, I have a simple, quick way of assessing how much thought they have given to continuity planning. After interviewing the power-holders individuall...

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The Immortals

Published May 30, 1993 Howard Muson |

This october leaders of 25 of the world's oldest business dynasties will meet in Germany. They call themselves Les Hénokiens, after the Biblical patriarch Enoch, and they claim to comprise the...

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Guarding the Family Name

Published May 30, 1993 Ellen Hawkes |

Ernest and Julio Gallo have built the world's largest wine empire. Poor when their parents died in 1933, they turned the family grape-growing business into a winery in Modesto, California, and raised...

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Trusting the Business to Trustees

Published May 30, 1993 Michael L. Fay |

For families that run businesses, one of the most important uses of a trust is to ensure the smooth transfer of leadership and ownership from the current generation to the upcoming one. A trust is ...

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The Charitable Way to Transfer a Business

Published March 30, 1993 Mike Cohn |

Royce, 72, was the sole owner of a successful 250-room hotel. He was proud that he and his son, George, 43, had built the company's value to $7.5 million without incurring a cent of debt. George had w...

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Leather By Any Other Name Smells Just As Sweet

Published March 30, 1993 Robert Berman |

The smell of leather is so alluring that when visitors arrive at Berman Leather Co. they close their eyes and breathe in deeply, before even saying hello. That is the only similarity, however, betwee...

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Asking the Right Questions About Your Future

Published March 30, 1993 Paul Frishkoff |

Clients as well as students sometimes come to us for advice about careers in the family business. Usually, they are pondering questions like: Should I join the business? Should I remain in the busine...

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Widows Who Become Pilots Without Ever Flying

Published March 30, 1993 Leon Danco |

Virtually an entire generation of business founders made the same mistake: Dad wanted to make sure that after he was gone Mom didn't have to take in laundry in order to support herself. Since his onl...

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Make-or-Break Criteria for Outside Directors

Published March 30, 1993 Peter Davis |

Most family companies are owner operated and the only board of directors they have is a fictitious entity, written about in contrived documents, that is designed to protect the corporate shell in the ...

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Through Your Child's Eyes

Published March 30, 1993 Jayne A. Pearl |

A few years ago, Steven Roberts came home from work at 2 a.m. and found his daughter, Linsay, now 17, awake in her room doing homework. “He got so angry that I was still up. He started yelling ...

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