Generation to Generation

"Companies owned and managed by families are a special organizational form whose "specialness" has both positive and negative consequences."

"The three-circle model describes the family business system as three independent but overlapping subsystems."

"Not all Controlling Owner family businesses are entrepreneurial, and not all entrepreneurial businesses have one controlling owner."

"Even in the most harmonious situations, the controlling sibling is naive if he or she feels that the deciding 1 percent majority allows the same unquestioned autonomy as was exercised by the sole owner."

"Most of the distinctive characteristics of the Cousin Consortiums stem from the complexity of these amazing business enterprises."

"It is a difficult challenge for the Young Business Family to nurture the domain of work and the domain of the family simultaneously."

"The initial career decisions of the younger generation stimulate self-questioning in the parental generation as well."

"One of the hallmarks of the Working Together stage of development is that the family has become a network of families, as the younger generation marries and has children of its own."

"The key family issues of this stage are the elder generation's disengagement for the business, the generational shift in leadership, and the implied confrontation with death."

"Companies begin as ideas."

"In the Expansion/Formalization stage, the importance of both growth and complexity as measures of development becomes clear."

"Family firms are sometimes slow to acknowledge the complexity of the strategy process when they reach the Maturity stage."

"When the legitimate interests of ownership do not have a forum for expression, issues of control and return on investment will find a way to emerge in either the family or the operating business."

"All families are organizational systems, but business-owning families in particular must give serious attention to their organizational needs."

"In family firms, when there is an interest in continuing to involve family members in senior management, it is even more essential to think developmentally about human resources needs."

"Each step in the consultation process must be considered in light of the ownership structure, the business situation, and the family dynamics."