Preparing Your Family Business for Strategic Change

PREFACE Shorter Life Expectancy of Strategies The Family Factor PART I: REACHING YOUR FAMILY BUSINESS' STRATEGIC POTENTIAL Sorting through Mixed Signals Understanding the Family Business Strategic Path Getting to the Next Phase PART II: DEMYSTIFYING PAST SUCCESS Unleashing Strategy and Structure Loosening Rigid Strategies Making Change Part of Tradition PART III: PREVENTING PAST BUSINESS STRATEGY FROM LIMITING FUTURE SUCCESS Just What Business Are You In? Getting Over Resistance to Planning Developing Strategic Skills Making Change Less Threatening PART IV: RESPONDING TO FAMILY AND BUSINESS NEEDS The Power of Family Values Reducing Personal Financial and Emotional Insecurity Matching Family Factors with Business Strategy Assessing Risk Tolerance of Family Members Developing Stewardship PART V: STRATEGIC LIBERATION AND RENEWAL New Models for Strategic Succession Appreciating Inherent Family Business Advantages Understanding Inherent Family Business Disadvantages Turning Disadvantages into Advantages What Have You Done for the Business Lately? Depersonalizing Disagreements about Succession or Strategy Getting Input from the Outside Conclusions: Getting From Here to There Appendix: Exhibits of Financial Performance Over the Family Business Strategic Path Index

CRAIG E. ARONOFF Co-founder, Principal, and Chairman of the Board of The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc., the founder of the Cox Family Enterprise Center and current Professor Emeritus at Kennesaw State University, USA. He invented and implemented the membership-based, professional-service-provider sponsored Family Business Forum, which has served as a model of family business education for universities world-wide.

JOHN L. WARD Co-founder of the Family Business Consulting Group Inc. He is Clinical Professor at the Kellogg School of Management, USA, and teaches strategic management, business leadership and family enterprise continuity.