Lansing Crane's 12 Rules for Family Business Failure

Lansing Crane, the former chairman of his family's business, Crane & Co., is currently the non-family chairman of two other family businesses, Canal Insurance Company and Wells Enterprises.

At the Private Company Governance Summit 2015, held last May in Washington, D.C., Crane delivered a keynote address, sharing with conference attendees “what we've learned from our mistakes.”

Crane dedicated his remarks to the memory of Don Keough, a former executive and director at The Coca-Cola Company at the time the doomed New Coke was launched. Keough authored a book entitled


The Ten Commandments for Business Failure


. Following Keough's lead, Crane offered conference participants his own “12 Rules for Family Business Failure”:

• 
  Don't share the wealth.
  
• Keep shareholders in the dark.
• Reward activity and seniority, not performance.
• Treat family employees better than others.
• Don't share company performance information with employees.
• Use the word “I” instead of “we.”
• Let family trump on all decisions.
• Believe no one can understand your business better than you.
• Believe that tactics are really strategy.
• Avoid candid performance decisions and communications.
• Engage low-cost advisers and don't tell them everything.
• Take no risks.

The Private Company Governance Summit 2016 will be held May 11-13, 2016. For information, see

the conference website.