Written by Susan Latremoille & Peter Creaghan with Frank Archibald, Linda Betts, Arnie Cader, Sheila Crummey, Tony Ianni, Stever Landau, Ron Prehogan and Pearl Schusheim © 2010

This book is a very readable, if fictional, account of a family business founder and his wife wrestling with the choices surrounding their exit from a family business and the resulting wealth transition to their children.  This book’s authors clearly advocate for the value of an advisory team of family advisors including tax planners, estate lawyers, wealth management specialists, life insurance advisors and general family advisors.  Best practices for advisory boards and boards of directors, including compensation,  are also reviewed.  The fictional couple consider several options for exit and transition including outright sale of the business, succession to a family member and setting up trusts for their children.

This is an interesting and largely accurate look at some of the dilemmas that family business owners/founders will one day certainly face. Whether you choose to use a team approach or not, these are all considerations that are smart to be explored.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Roy Williams and Vic Preisser ©2003

This book is based on research of 3,250 wealthy families regarding their legacies.  It is extraordinarily insightful.  This book reveals what these successful families had in common—how they achieved and maintained family harmony, and ensured the smooth transition of their wealth to well-adjusted heirs.  They also warn of the wide range of factors that cause  families to be unsuccessful in their wealth transition. It contains clear, concise, well organized, and easy-to-follow instructions that will enable family businesses to evaluate or create their plan for transitioning family wealth.

This book can help family businesses develop a plan based upon  family values underlying the accumulation of wealth and prepare heirs to be good stewards and thoughtful administrators of that wealth.  It is also an important resource for other family advisors  (i.e. estate lawyers, financial planners) to use with their clients.

This is a great resource for any family business owner contemplating a wealth transition.  It is an easy read and informative.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

]]> http://familyworkblog.com/2012/03/22/march-2012-book-review/feed/ 0 Renee Montoya Lado Preparing Heirs http://familyworkblog.com/2012/02/15/february-2012-book-review/ http://familyworkblog.com/2012/02/15/february-2012-book-review/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:33:24 +0000 SDL http://familyworkblog.com/2012/02/15/february-2012-book-review/ ]]> The Smart Divorce: Proven Strategies and Valuable Advice from 100 Top Divorce Lawyers, Financial Advisors, Counselors, and Other Experts

Written by Deborah Moskovitch ©2007

The enormous success of the “DUMMIES” book series is self evident.  If ever there was a ‘Divorce for Dummies’, this would be it —  meaning no disrespect.

It is at once a resource book replete with definitions, practical advice and lists and lists of resources.  It steps the reader through the ‘land of divorce’ with a straight forward pragmatism.  The book is an easy read and informative.  One can imagine it dog-eared and coffee stained on someone’s kitchen table.  Go right out and send this book to any of your friends that might be contemplating a divorce or worst case, who might have been served with papers asking for a divorce.  It will serve as an orientation — a travelers’ guide to the impending terrain.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Loyd H. Rawls 2nd Edition ©1999-2004

The author of this book is a practitioner and a principal in his own financial planning firm.  We emphasize that because therein lies the value and credibility for any family business founder. 

This is an excellent resource for any member of a family business, particularly in the area of financial planning, whether or not one might be ready to ‘exit’ your business.  The information and advice regarding regulations, taxes, estate planning etc. will be invaluable.  Interestingly Mr. Rawls also ably tackles other management and family issues such as succession, communication and family relationships.

The format of the book is quite helpful, with case studies in each section which are additional learning options to the reader should they require more application to the concepts and principles he teaches.  We found the book quite optimistic about a family’s ability to grapple with and finally master major dilemmas in the areas of succession, exit or difficult familial relationships.

This book is not a quick or easy read per se but definitely a resource that any founder/owner would be remiss to have not read.  By the way, if you are going to order this book, be sure to order the 2nd edition, the changes from the first edition are very important.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Mark Voeller, PhD; Linda Fairburn, MSOD; and Wayne Thompson ©2002

This is a small but powerful book – the size was intentional to make it a sort of ready-reference.  It was written to tackle only one part of the sleeveless in three generations problem —exit/transition/succession planning.  The authors are adamant that people start the succession process when they start thinking about exiting without thinking of how it will affect business strategy and processes, the family members or potential successors. This holistically focused book would be a helpful and practical tool to start a discussion around this issue.

This book reinforces systems thinking, life cycles of a business and the role of a trained advisor in the exiting process.  The structure of the book is very unique.  Each chapter addresses an aspect of exiting a business and could stand alone if need be, but definitely do build upon one another. These chapters are process oriented with key questions, underlying issues, exploration questions and action steps for the founder/current owner to consider. Although this book seems to be written for the owner/founder it would be useful for any member of a family business or advisor.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Leslie Dashew, Sam Lane, Joe Paul, Darrell Beck, and Williams Robert ©2011

This recent addition to the Family Business literature is exceptional.  The book’s content is drawn on the expertise of the authors (more than 30 years respectively) who are members of the Aspen Family Business Group.  The Keys to Family Business Success would be helpful for anyone who is in a family business or who works with one.  The overall tone of the book is positive and realistic and is intended to be a helpful resource for family stakeholders who want to know how to deal with some of the challenges that arise whether on their own or in conjunction with the right advisors.  

The structure of the book is very pragmatic.  It begins with a lengthy case study outlining a family in crisis: how they are in crisis and their engagement with a consultant, then the beginning stages of the consulting process.  Each chapter addresses a different challenge and includes helpful activities, checklists/evaluations, and works of literature (poems or fables) to tackle the issues presented.

The authors provide a practical framework for recognizing a challenge before it becomes insurmountable, and is, therefore, a great contribution. 

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Irving Katz, MBA. ©2010

Family Business Secrets is a book that reminds family business owners how easy it is to only focus on our clients or products and services, and to forget about our business as a business. 

The author’s expertise as a family business advisor really helps make this book a practical support to bringing the business of our business back into focus.  Mr. Katz effectively incorporates case studies from previous clients as well as more well-known family businesses to further illustrate critical family business issues i.e. cash flow management, strategic planning, and succession planning .  His use of self-assessments at the beginning of each chapter helps the reader create a pragmatic baseline from which to learn from the material. 

This is a quick read that is quite useful for family business owners, family business members, and family business advisors alike.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Patricia Annino, J.D.; Thomas Davidow, Ed.D. & Cynthia Adams Harrison, Ed.D., LSCSW with Lisbeth Davidow Ed.M., M.F.A. ©2009

Women in Family Business explores the purview of  women who are not themselves founders of family businesses but who nonetheless impact and are impacted by them.   The authors take a candid look at the constellation of roles these women play in the family business arena including spouse, mother, widow, stepmother, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, and sister-in-law.  The reader is taken through challenges they may face as well as  given practical solutions to work around some of the challenges that may arise.

This book focuses less on the business and more on the impact the business has on their roles as the family businesses evolve. The authors provide a look into the developmental, emotional and psychological perspectives of these women and the influence they have on their family businesses.  An interesting read that could well be helpful to women and men alike.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Thomas William Deans, PhD ©2008, 2009

This surprising little book packs a punch with ideas that will have many of us scratching our heads and wondering why we never thought of them.  The book’s context is a dialog between two strangers on an airplane who happen to have their respective experiences in family businesses in common.   The readers are drawn into this flight and experience as though they were present.  William, as the author refers to himself in the book, starts out by saying that family businesses begin for many reasons, but all of them amount to being born of love. This is what makes family businesses “a powerful and emotional idea” that should be respected and treated as such. This book is dynamic in that is has two people on opposite ends of the same FOB situation.

The author, William Deans was a 3nd Generation family business member who was very involved in the selling of his company with his father. He is on a plane to Barbados with another man who happened to be a former 1st Generation business owner who sold his business without the involvement of his 2nd Generation family members who were employed in the company. Both men began talking about their respective  experiences and how those experiences affected them and their relationships with their families in both positive and negative ways. By the end of the flight these two men knew that they had a lot to learn from each other and possibly to offer to many people who are going through a similar situation.

William describes to his flight partner the 12 questions that his family used  to ensure that they had a smooth transition. These questions do need the context of the preceding chapters, so I will not write them here, but they all hang on this single premise: the family business will always be for sale to the highest bidder (whether or not that person is in the family).  What makes this book so interesting is that it makes the selling of a family business no longer a taboo. He argues that this actually saves the family and eliminates the conundrums  existing in a family business regarding employment of relatives, performance based or relationship based compensation etc.  He has the temerity to wonder whether even acknowledgement of family relationships within a family business contributes to destroying it!

A good read — enjoy!

Additional Book Information

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer

Written by Peter Thornton ©2009

This book reads like a novel.  The author is more than frank in his narrative about the array of complications and joys that happened in his family business and in his life.  He is as honest about his failings as he is about the failings of his family i.e. “I identified so completely with the company that my own identity and self-respect was entirely dependent on it… My life had been totally dedicated to the Thornton Family Business”….  While in some cases, his candor may be too graphic for some readers, this book is a compelling story for those who are drawn to an autobiographical account of life ‘inside a family business’.

Mr. Thornton is in the third generation of his family business (family tree graphic inserted here). His Grandfather was the founder.  His Father and Uncle successfully ran the business in a mutual partnership.  During the first three generations the males in the family did not have a choice about what they wanted to do/be.   Mr. Thornton describes the norm to be fit to the career instead of the career being fit for the person.

As the reader moves through Mr. Thornton’s family business story, s/he will notice his story is replete with points of failure that are common to many family businesses i.e. triangulation, ineffective succession planning, ineffective leverage of independent directors, ineffectual preparation of heirs for family wealth transition and stewardship.

That said, however, the Thornton family did two critical things well —  they have consistently and effectively leveraged their family mission statement and business principles regardless of family circumstances; and they remained true to their value of putting their employees first, thus creating a very important foundation for business stability and profitability to this day.

Renée Montoya Lado M.S., N.C.C

President, Strategic Designs for Learning

Family Owned Business Network  Book Review Chair & Editor

Natalie McVeigh, MBE

Research Analyst, Strategic Designs for Learning

 Family Owned Business Network  Senior Book Reviewer