The Family Business Conflict Resolution Handbook
Even the closest families have disagreements. Even the best-run businesses experience discord. So it's not surprising that family businesses - with their mix of older and younger generations, active and inactive shareholders, family and non-family employees - are ripe for conflict. It's simply inevitable.
Given this, how can your business family manage its disparities in a way that brings stakeholders closer together instead of driving them apart? How can you develop a systematic way of addressing hot-button issues before they hamper your company's progress? How, in fact, can you transform conflict into a positive force that sparks improvements in your company's bottom line?
The Family Business Conflict Resolution Handbook has the answers for you. It's a comprehensive "how-to" manual that captures the best advice from both top-flight experts and real-life family business owners on these critical issues.
Managing Disagreements
• How to break down the wall of silence
• Uncovering the true source of your arguments
• Methods for discussing your differences
• Using non-family managers as referees
• Planning a conflict-management getaway
• Tools for achieving meaningful dialogue
Understanding Conflict
• Family vs. business dynamics: What's the difference?
• When unhappy shareholders lack a voice
• How culture influences conflict - and resolution
• Why some families need a scapegoat
• How to prevent a family feud
Structural Solutions
• How to stop squabbling over money and power
• Strategic planning without a battle: A five-step process
• Keeping titles in their proper perspective
• Can co-presidencies work?
• Building harmony into your ownership structure
• How family councils can minimize family conflict
• Reducing conflict at board meetings
• How not to bequeath a power struggle
• Splitting the business to unify the family
Succession Strife
• Why personality holds the key to difficulty
• Pushing parents into succession
• When fathers and sons clash
• Daughters' succession struggles
• Breaking a succession deadlock
• Retiring a disabled CEO: A family profile
Partnerships and Rivalries
• Planning succession for joint leadership
• Creating a written charter for partners
• When the conflict involves money and siblings
• Complexities of a cousin consortium
Marital Matters
• Managing conflict in couple-owned businesses
• Couples' checklist for success
• Strangers among us: In-laws in a family business
• Confronting 'indiscretions'
• Why consider a premarital agreement?
Hot-Button Issues
• How to handle an abusive boss
• Confronting addiction in family businesses
• The bottom line on loans to relatives
• Designing an estate plan that minimizes strife
• When the debate is 'keep or sell'
• How to quash those favoritism rumors
• Calling relatives on the carpet
• 'That's it. You're all fired:' A family profile
Seeking Assistance
• A powerful mechanism: Financial modeling and scenario planning
• Achieving collaboration through mediation
• Alternative dispute resolution methods: Pros and cons
• Litigation strategies for minority owners
• How to limit the damage of family lawsuits