How many Gottis and Madoffs are there among family firms?
Recommended titles on children and money:
March 26th, 2009Pick your favorites or add to this list
Fave family business fiction and movies
March 25th, 2009What are your favorites?
Best family business biographies
March 24th, 2009There are so many great ones — please weigh in!
The Other Woman
May 7th, 2008Many families have said their Dad’s business was like a mistress: consuming his time, money, and passion. Ralph Blivin’s son and daughter suspected a flesh and blood mistress as well. I had to admit that was a plausible hypothesis.
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Suicide is Painless?
March 17th, 2008Tony Packo’s Cafe in Toledo, Ohio, became famous in the US and Canada when Klinger, the cross-dressing Corporal in M*A*S*H, played by Toledo native Jamie Farr, mentioned Packo’s hot dogs in several episodes. Now the Packo family have made their own headlines crossing lawsuits over power, money, insults and hurt feelings.
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“Crazy” Sister vs. “Power-hungry” Brother
February 6th, 2008Chronic mental illness impairs one in every eight or ten adults. Which of us doesn’t have a relative—an aunt, uncle, cousin or in-law if not a parent, child, sibling, or spouse—suffering from long term inability to behave rationally and reliably in the adult world?
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A Matter of Faith
December 13th, 2007Maybe I got the session off on the wrong foot by using the word evolves. “You don’t have to think of everything in advance,” I said. Your Family Council will evolve over time, the way species adapt to environmental constraints. What you’re creating now is just a starting place.” I could have used the American Constitution as another example, a living document subject to each generation’s interpretation and review. But that would have been almost as unpopular an idea as the evolution of species was in this family.
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Fairness is as Fairness Does
November 2nd, 2007Most family firm conflicts don’t result from anything “dysfunctional” in the family. There isn’t necessarily any “baggage” from childhood rivalries; nor are there always personality issues, spoiled brats, or greedy in-laws. Conflict is often simply a result of not having thought through the consequences of business succession and estate planning.
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