Josh Baron - The Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook

Are you a leader of a multigenerational family business who wants to keep the business and family growing and thriving?

Are you the founder of a successful business trying to decide whether to hand your business down to your children?

Are you a member of the younger generation in a family business, eager to find a way to contribute but not quite sure how?

Are you trying to navigate your dual roles as owner and employee in your family business?

Are you a family business owner who plays no active role in day-to-day operations but who is committed to the companys long-term success?

Are you the spouse of an owner of a family business who cares about supporting both your spouse and your children, but you dont fully understand the boundaries of your role?

Are you a nonfamily executive, board member, or adviser to a family business you deeply respect, but youre not sure how to help?

Are you a nonfamily employee of a family business, trying to figure out if you have a shot at thriving there?

Are you part of a company that is not technically a family business but operates like one, perhaps because its employee-owned or a partnership?

If you fall into any of those categorieswhether your family business is a global conglomerate or a local pizza parlorthis handbook is for you.

Family and business are two of the most powerful forces in the world. Our families provide our nature in the form of our genes and much of our nurture. Businesses employ our most valuable resourcesour people, our time, our capital. When combined, family and business amplify their impact, and their complexity. If you are reading this book, you live and work in this intense nexus and you have insights and experiences that outsiders seldom understand.

The frameworks and practices in this book are based on the decades of experience we have acquired through working with family businesses in a wide range of sizes, industries, and geographic locations. We will share the stories of some of those families throughout this book but will, by necessity, disguise any identifying details. The tactics in this book have worked for hundreds of business families, and we hope you find ways that they can work for you, too. Youll need to assess whether our recommendations will work for your own family under the circumstances and time frame unique to your situationand what, if any, tweaks youll need. There are very few best practices that all family businesses should adopt; well alert you to the exceptions.

We have enormous respect for family businesses. As family business advisers, we share a passion to help people who need to make important decisions together amid the businesss many layers. Both of us started our careers as strategy consultants, Rob at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Josh at Bain & Company. Rob has practical leadership experience from being the CEO of three companies, while Josh brings an academic perspective from teaching MBA and executive education at Columbia Business School. Each of us has spent more than a decade advising family businesses all over the world as they have navigated these tricky shoals. We always learn something important from the families we work with, and we deeply admire what they have built and sustained.

Through our work, we have also learned that family businesses can represent both the best and the worst forms of capitalism. At their best, these businesses invest in the long term, in their community, and in working and growing together. At their worst, and as they are often portrayed in the media, family businesses are plagued by terrible conflict, destroying their wealth, scores of jobs, and their family relationships in the process.

So, what separates the best from the worst? The most successful family businesses have three traits in common:

1. Curiosity: Successful family businesses are led by lifelong learners. These leaders ask great questions rather than assume they have all the answers. Theyre always exploring what others are doing and looking for new ideas.
2. Teamwork: Effective family businesses know that keeping their business functioning well requires constant effort. They identify emerging problems, theyre not afraid of having difficult conversations, they make tough choicesand they recognize the importance of doing these things together.