July 29, 2004
ISSN 15465640
A free monthly e-zine with articles and tips from Family Business Experts who understand family values and business systems.
July 29, 2004 Issue #028 Family Business Experts
http://www.family-business-experts.com
http://www.familybusinessexperts.com
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to friends, colleagues, clients...
If you have received this from a subscriber and wish to subscribe yourself...please visit:
This publication may be freely redistributed if copied in its entirety.
In This Issue...
1. Our Managing Director Announces -
2. Business first family...Family first business
Pruning the family business tree
3. Legacy through Leadership
LPO5. Updating Organizational Assumptions
4. Around the Family Business Experts web sites
1. Our Managing Director Announces -
Professor Ken Mackenzie is our very distinguished expert in Organization and Leadership. Dr. Mackenzie is a world-renowned scholar in the field of Organizational Theory. Since 1972 he has held an endowed chair at the University of Kansas Business School.
Ken is the author of The Practitioner's Guide for Organizing an Organization (PGOO) that was first published in 1995. Over the past nine years there have been many advances in the methods and the models. The second edition of PGOO has just been released. It maintains the same helpful spirit as the earlier edition - but it is more than just a new edition. There is a new theme: Practitioners need to start thinking about how organizations can become and remain well-organized if they want to improve an organization. There is a new content that reflects the many advances in concepts, methods and tools.
We are pleased to announce that PGOO is available for purchase from Wizard Publisher's web site. More information about how PGOO creates value for an organization can be viewed by clicking The Practitioner's Guide for Organizing Organizations. PGOO can be down loaded as an e-Book or you can order the printed edition. PGOO is priced at $49.95 (USD).
If you prefer the printed edition, there is a S/H charge of $6.50 for a book shipped within the US.
Also being released is THE HOLONOMIC CUBE - a great conversation starter as well as a handy "diagnostic tool" to have on your desk or in your brief case. It is a great teaching aid when you are explaining how the Holonomic Organization model connects the 29 Leadership Practices, the Six Desired Organizational Characteristics and the twelve Holonomic Processes!
The Holonomic CubeThe Holonomic Cube is priced at $25.00 (USD) and the S/H charge is just $2.00.
We continue with the Leadership Practices series, since these practices are the foundation for the processes that must be in place in order to achieve success.
Reminder: We've developed a couple of quick diagnostic assessments to help you. They are both fr*ee [at least for a while] and we try to deliver 48 hour turnaround of our analysis. Try them!
The Holonomic Top Down Assessment asks you about a combination of the 12 Main Enabling Processes that an effective organization has to have operating in order to achieve the 6 Desired Organizational Characteristics of effective organizations. Where your assessment indicates one or more of these are not working in your organization, we'll feed back suggestions as to the underlying Leadership Practices that might not be working.
Diagnosing from the other direction - Bottom-Up - we ask you to identify which of 29 Leadership Practices aren't present or working. From that, we point you to Enabling Processes and thus Desired Characteristics that probably aren't functioning.
Whether to contribute, challenge (or hopefully even praise) our newsletter, I encourage you to contact me directly Don, or our editor David.
Enjoy, and here's wishing you, your family, your clients... much success!
Don Schwerzler, Managing Director
Family Business Experts
2. Business first family...Family first business:
Pruning the family business tree
[reprinted from UFB-011 January 11, 2003]
For many family businesses, the families grow faster than the business. Their business is like a pie that is being cut into smaller and smaller pieces. This can end up with more family members in the business than what the business can afford to employ. Often this creates a situation where none of the family members are making a decent living; or where, because of a lack of re-investment (machinery, trucks, computers, etc) in the business, the business loses its competitive advantage in the market place
To avoid this problem, we recommend that family businesses develop hiring strategies for family members so that only those family members who acquire a skill or expertise that the business needs are invited to join the business.
A related issue is posed in the question "What can non-employee family members contribute to the family business?"
Family Foundations and setting up ancillary businesses are two excellent ways to involve family members who need not be employees of the family business.
See our full article at
Our Tips and Recommendations
More businesses than ever are using the Internet to reach local markets. If your business isn't one of them, you're going to be left behind.
BizPlanBuilder [Jian] Helps you create your business plan quickly by organizing your thoughts into carefully scripted text. Great spread sheet templates for the financial projections. Includes resources and not just blanks to fill in.
Site Build It! "Why build JUST a Web site... when you COULD build a Web BUSINESS?" Our SBI! Certified Webmaster can help.
Site Build It! Certified Webmaster
Issues cost you money. Monitor and manage Issues in your business with Wizard Publisher's Issue Tracking Software
a grand little idea
Wizard Publisher's Issue Tracking Software
3. Legacy through Leadership
There are 29 Leadership Practices [LP] that are really the foundation upon which 12 holonomic or enabling processes[HP] are built, and which, in turn, produce 6 desired organizational characteristics [DOC]. We'll look at each in this section.
LPO5. Updating Organizational Assumptions
Updating organizational assumptions is the strategic process of discussing, updating, and acting upon changes to the organizational assumptions as the organization evolves. The process ensures that the consistency of the assumptions (about strategies, actual environments, the strategic direction, and the basis for organizing) is maintained. The organizational assumptions are the basis for how the organization arranges itself, therefore, they need to be reviewed and updated to maintain a good fit between how the organization is organized and what is needed to keep it succeeding.
Dr. Ken Mackenzie is our internationally-recognized organizational expert. These leadership tips are discussed in detail in The Practitioner's Guide for Organizing Organizations. The Practitioner's Guide for Organizing Organizations
Would you like to see how the 29 Leadership Practices are affecting your family business? Our assessment only takes a few minutes to complete!
Take our fr*ee assessment on the 29 Leadership Practices...
4. Around the Family Business Experts web sites
Search the entire content site
in two different ways
1. A search engine powered by ATOMZ has indexed all the pages on the site and will link you to those relating to any search term you enter.
2. A 'Table of contents' listing that will link you directly to any page / article you select. Use the Site Map Navigation Button from any major page on the site.
Background information, testimonials to our service and understanding, and answers to FAQ's [Frequently Asked Questions]. Family Business Experts
There are new articles accessible from this page on the left side navigation bar.
And remember about our convenient new online billing with 100% assurance! Another step in our process of starting online business.
Secure online payment
1213 Laurel Cliff Drive, Smyrna GA 30082
voice 770-952-4085 fax 770-432-6660
Contact Don Schwerzler