Family business continuity

Author: (By) Ivan Landsberg, translated by Xu Yulin and Fu Yaha
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-24
Features: Finding a suitable successor for a beloved founder or CEO is often one of the most challenging tasks a company faces; for family businesses, completing this task presents even greater challenges. Surprisingly, from small (couple-owned grocery stores) to multinational corporations that dominate the global business landscape, few family businesses successfully pass on to the next generation, and even fewer manage to smoothly transfer their legacy to the third generation. The author of this book, Ivan Landsberg, is an organizational psychologist who grew up in a business family. In this book, he reveals the reasons behind this high failure rate and proposes the conditions under which family businesses can successfully achieve generational succession. 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 "shared dream," a concept somewhat similar to a unique mission. Because Landsberg offers suggestions on how to manage the succession process, how to establish systematic selection procedures, and how to effectively utilize the board of directors during the transition, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of the succession process. He is also someone who analyzes the various options in the inheritance process. These options include everything from the simplest transfer from one parent to a designated heir, to more complex transitions from sibling cooperation teams to family cooperation teams. Based on numerous case studies from family businesses in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, this book offers a thorough and insightful perspective on the complex and unpredictable succession process of family businesses. Succession planning is a perpetual mission for family businesses. This book is a valuable resource that provides detailed solutions to the problems family businesses face at every stage of their development.