October 22, 2004
ISSN 15465640
A free monthly e-zine with articles and tips from Family Business Experts who understand family values and business systems.
October 22, 2004 Issue #031 Family Business Experts
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In This Issue...
1. Our Managing Director Announces -
2. Business first family...Family first business
Why Firms Do Well When Founders Are At The Helm
3. Legacy through Leadership
LP08. Updating the Organizational Architecture
4. Around the Family Business Experts web sites
1. Our Managing Director Announces -
In my travels I meet a lot of strangers - the kinds of people you meet as seat mates on an airplane, at workshops and seminars - even at the local high school PTA meetings.
You all have had like kinds of conversations - they generally start out by someone asking the nature of your work.
When I tell people that I am a family business consultant and that much of my time is spent in dealing with succession management issues - almost everyone seems to equate "family business" to "small business". The truth is that many of the Fortune 500 companies are in fact family businesses - companies like Ford and Motorola.
Our clients are not part of that select group (not yet anyway!) but I am a firm believer that a small business can learn a great deal of important concepts and ideas (don't re-invent the wheel) from a larger-sized business. Most simply stated, adapt ideas and concepts that can be scaled to the size of their business.
With that in mind, I would like to direct you to an interesting "read" in a newsletter called Knowledge@Wharton. The paper was written by Wharton professor Raphael Amit and Harvard professor Belen Villalonga and entitled "How Do Family Ownership, Control and Management Affect Firm Value". The research for the paper was done to gain a better understanding about this premise: "Family Business: Why Firms Do Well When Founders Are At The Helm".
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:
Why Firms Do Well When Founders Are At The Helm
Our Tips and Recommendations
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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.
LP08. Updating the Organizational Architecture
Updating the organizational architecture is an administrative process to ensure that the organization and unit organizational charts accurately mirror how Associates actually work together. It ensures that the organizational logic is congruent with the organizational charts, and that the organization keeps these charts up-to-date. Additionally, this process seeks to align the strategic direction with the means developed to implement it at the organizational, unit, and individual level.
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 many articles accessible from this page on the left side navigation bar.
FamilyLore Game is an exciting game for the whole family.
Preparing a mission statement is challenging work....
And remember about our convenient new online billing with 100% assurance! Another step in our process of starting online business.
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Contact Don Schwerzler