Sustaining the Family Business: How Family Enterprises Successfully Complete Intergenerational Succession

Author: (By) Ivan Landsberg, translated by Xu Yulin and Fu Yahe
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Features: My personal experience in the power transition process of a family business proves that this book is the perfect first-hand material on the succession process. The guidance Landsberg provides for the successful intergenerational transfer of family businesses is truly invaluable. — CEO of Sims Company, Massy Sims
Landsberg’s insightful perspectives bring entirely new ideas to the field. Anyone who believes family businesses are still stuck in the era of small grocery stores should read this book, and the sooner the better. — Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, Louis B. Barnes
This book is a milestone in the field of family businesses. No other book cites as many references and incorporates as much practical experience. It is the best book I know for managing the intergenerational transfer of family businesses. — Founder and Chairman of Family Business Consulting Group, John Ward
Unlike the "authorities" who try to convince us that our only dream should be to pursue shareholder value unconditionally, Landsberg brings a refreshing breeze to us. His profound insights into successfully passing on family dreams, family values, and family businesses help us realize that all family businesses are so humanistic. — Professor at INSEAD, Lodewijk van der Heyden
Finding a suitable successor for a beloved founder or CEO is often the most challenging task a company faces; for family businesses, completing this task presents even greater challenges. Surprisingly, few family businesses succeed in passing on to the next generation, and even fewer smoothly transfer their legacy to the third generation. The author, Ivan Landsberg, is an organizational psychologist who grew up in a business family. In this book, he reveals the reasons for this high failure rate and proposes the conditions under which family businesses can successfully achieve intergenerational transfer. Landsberg believes that family businesses are highly privatized, and due to the neglect of some deep psychological factors, many detailed succession plans are inevitably doomed to fail. He emphasizes that the family must have a "common dream," a kind of unique mission. Since Landsberg offers suggestions on how to control the succession process, how to establish a systematic selection procedure, and how to use the board of directors most effectively during the process, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the succession process. He is also someone who analyzes the various choices in the inheritance process. The multiple choices discussed here range from the simplest transfer from one parent to a designated heir to more complex transfers from a sibling cooperation team to a family cooperation team. Based on extensive cases from family businesses in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, this book presents a comprehensive and profound understanding of the intricate succession process of family businesses. The succession plan is a perpetual mission of family businesses. This book is a book that provides in-depth and detailed solutions to the problems family businesses encounter at every different stage of development.