Book Recommendations

Our publishers and editors have hand selected the following books for you to consider adding to your library. Happy reading.

George A. Isaac

 

YOU'VE SPENT THE MAJORITY OF YOUR CAREER BUILDING YOUR FAMILY BUSINESS. YOU'VE LEARNED WHAT WORKS, ENDURED LEAN YEARS, ENJOYED BOOM, AND WATCHED YOUR COMPANY GROW, BUT NOW IT'S TIME TO THINK ABOUT WHAT'S NEXT.

Consultant George Isaac has been helping families start, build, and maintain their enterprises for more than forty years. Whether you're getting ready to retire, about to assume a new leadership role, or are looking for ways to run your business smarter, Your Business, Your Family, Your Legacy is the comprehensive guide you need to build a family business that lasts. Using real-world, experiential examples, Isaac introduces:

  • Seven essential initiatives for business survival and growth
  • Techniques to navigate family dynamics and prevent conflict
  • Strategies for establishing effective governance
  • A road map to forming and executing a workable succession plan
  • Practical approaches to multigenerational wealth management

Avoid the pitfalls and traps that keep most family businesses from surviving past the current generation. Build a multigenerational business legacy that lasts with this indispensable guide.

Grant Gordon and Nigel Nicholson

Many of the world's greatest businesses are family owned, and with this comes the threat of family feuding, sibling rivalries, and petty jealousies. Family Wars takes readers behind the scenes on a rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of some of the biggest family-run companies in the world, showing how family in-fighting has threatened to bring about their downfall. Covering families such as Ford, Gucci, McCain, Guinness, Gallo, and Redstone, Family Wars is an astonishing expose of the way families do business and how family in-fighting can threaten to blow a business apart. Whether it's Brent Redstone's court case with his father and sister or the family feud over Henry Ford's $350 million trust fund, the book reveals the origins, the extent, and finally the resolution of some of the most famous family feuds in recent history. Family Wars also provides valuable advice for anyone involved in a family business, offering suggestions on how to avoid such problems.

Greg McCann

This book is about self development and awareness for individuals and includes tools that can help a family get along better and have a more successful business.

Henry Lee Hutcheson

Why are family businesses so challenging? Family is about unconditional love, and business is about profit. Dirty little secret: these two goals do not always align. This book explains that family businesses, like relatives, come in many shapes and sizes. 

Ivan Lansberg

Finding the right successor to a well-loved founder or president is often the most difficult task an organization can face—and the challenge can be even greater for family-run businesses. Succeeding Generations explores leadership transitions in family businesses, offering a clear-eyed assessment of the different options, from direct succession to building partnerships between siblings and cousins.