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February 16, 2006 Issue #051 Family Business Experts

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What's an RSS feed? 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 Risk management isn't just about fire and vehicle insurance coverage 3. Legacy through Leadership LP22. Using Organizational Forums 4. Around the Family Business Experts web sites 1. Our Managing Director Announces - President Ronald Reagan pointed out that the most feared words in the English language are "I'm from the federal government and I am here to help." After the Katrina disaster - President Reagan's observation proved prophetic. But the government response at the state and local levels, especially in the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, was even worse. Last year was the worst year for weather related problems - ever. As a nation we encountered 148 forest fires - wild fires that burned across 8.64 million acres of US land, a new record. There were 14 hurricanes and 27 named storms - exceeding the previous record of 21 set in 1933. Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive and the costliest natural disaster in US history and the deadliest since 1928. 1136 tornados were reported in the first 10 months of 2005. Pacific storms triggered severe floods and devastating land slides in southern California and brought the second wettest winter on record to the Southwest region. The cost of this extreme weather in human lives, environmental damage and property and business losses are still being calculated and may never be fully understood. Read below to see that risk management isn't just about fire and vehicle insurance coverage. 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. Take our fr*ee Holonomic Top Down Assessment to see what underlying practices might be at fault and causing problem symptoms in your family business . 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. Take our fr*ee assessment on the 29 Leadership Practices to see how they affect your family business. 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: Risk management isn't just about fire and vehicle insurance coverage Risk management and business continuation are two of the most important functions that family businesses must address. Unfortunately, this type of contingency planning is viewed, all too often, as a back-burner project - something family business owners know is important but never important enough to get to the top of the "to do" list. We urge all family businesses to reconsider these risk management planning functions and make them a priority. The reason for this sense of urgency is the next huge problem that family business owners may need to prepare for is the bird flu pandemic. [Ed. note: Epidemic means spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or a population at the same time. Pandemic is epidemic over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population. Think of the SARS outbreak and rapid world-wide spread a couple of years ago.] According to Dr Julie Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, business and communities must prepare to be "self-contained" in the event of a bird flu pandemic. In other words, the health care system would be overwhelmed and crippled. How bad could it be? Gerberding used estimates that one third of the population could be infected and that over 2 million Americans would die and 750,000 people would be in intensive care units on ventilators. "We have to gear up and do what is necessary to prepare, and local planning – including the role businesses play – is critical to these efforts," she said. To help employers prepare for a possible flu pandemic, CDC has developed a checklist that includes actions they can take to plan for the impact of a flu pandemic on their businesses and on their employees and customers. You can review the check list prepared by the CDC at http://pandemicflu.gov/plan/pdf/businesschecklist.pdf. Even if bird flu doesn't seem likely to you, the check list is worth the couple of minutes to read, since it will help against even more local outbreaks such as the winter flu that seems to affect us every year. For a more general view of Risk Management and another useful questionnaire, see our Risk Management section of the web site. If you would like help in creating a business continuity plan for your family business, we can help – just use the complimentary ASK THE EXPERT feature on our web site. Our Tips and Recommendations 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 Project KickStart is the fastest, easiest way to plan and schedule projects. Project KickStart gives you the power to think through all aspects of a project before you begin. You'll create project plans and strategies guaranteed to get the results you want -- fast. Define project phases. Clarify your goals. Anticipate obstacles. Establish tasks. Delegate assignments. Set due dates. Check off tasks when they're done. Bump dates. And much, much more! Project KickStart for any project in your family business. 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. LP22. Using Organizational Forums Using organizational forums is the management process that establishes and deploys a systematic series of regular meetings, throughout the organization, to communicate and share information. Forums are arenas for problem solving. The sharing of information is a means to conduct and update operations. Forum participants consistently work to improve the quality of the forums. 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. Marty Hobart, President of Hobart Cabinet Company, is still inspired by the genius and entrepreneurial spirit of his great-grandfather, but he is just as proud of the difference Hobart family members and companies have made in their respective communities. Hobart Cabinet Company Risks come from many sources and not all are obvious, so risk management needs to anticipate and plan for your protection. Risk Management Don't forget to subscribe to our Family Business Experts RSS Feed. It keeps you totally updated [NEW and UPDATED] of site changes and saves you time by delivering some of our "Golden Oldies" that need to be looked at again. If you have previously subscribed - Thanks! But please use the orange XML/RSS button below again - our feed link has changed. What's an RSS feed? Don't forget that you can complete our Family Business Profile Questionnaire form to have your family business or client profiled. 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. Read the review of The Practitioner's Guide for Organizing an Organization and click on its ASK THE EXPERT link to contact Dr. Byrne who is an experienced user of the diagnostic tools. Take our fr*ee assessment on the 29 Leadership Practices to see how they affect your family business. Take our fr*ee Holonomic Top Down Assessment to see what underlying practices might be at fault and causing problem symptoms in your family business . And remember about our convenient new online billing with 100% assurance! Another step in our process of starting online business. Secure online payment © 2000-2006. Family Business Institute, Inc. 904 Steffi Court, Lawrenceville GA 30044 (V)770.952.4085 (F)770.237.9818 Contact Don Schwerzler

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