New Dogs, Old Tricks

How to Succeed in a Second Generation Family Business

If you are in a family business or even thinking about it, the best advice is this: throw away most of what you’ve learned about traditional management. It simply doesn’t work! Family-owned companies are replete with idiosyncrasies and challenges that just aren’t faced by conventional organizations.

What happens when you can't fire your brother, yet he won't cooperate with you, or vice versa? How do you motivate employees who see nepotism as a ceiling to their advancement? How do you resist being a “credit hog” and avoid upstaging your staff? Why is managing your children so fundamentally different from parenting, and how do you leave behind all the “baggage” from their upbringing? Most importantly, how do you ensure that the pursuit of financial gain doesn’t destroy the very family it is intended to support?

This book explores these and many other questions faced by anyone who tries to make a living by working with their family. It is at times anecdotal, while at others deeply philosophical, and it attempts to help you negotiate a maze of specific problems associated with such an endeavor and, wherever possible, turn them into advantages for lifelong success.