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UFB Newsletter #089
April 26, 2012

Managing Change in a Family Business

"For family businesses, dealing with change and change management, can be far greater challenge than non-family businesses," according to top family business expert Don Schwerzler.

Change Management

SUCCESSION - WHOSE JOB IS IT?

The senior generation has the legal responsility for executing the succession plan but why not assign the responsibility for organizing the succession management process to the Nexters?

NEXTERS

Do you have a strategy in place to "Future Proof" your family business?

“That is a question every family business owner should be asking – and answering,” according leading family business expert Don Schwerzler.

FUTURE PROOF YOUR FAMILY BUSINESS

Innovation is a crucial factor in creating successful and generational family businesses. "Part of every succession plan should also include an innovation strategy that addresses "transformation" as well as "transition".

Family Business Innovation Strategy

Our Family Business Forum section is a "soap box" where family businesses can offer fresh ideas to the politicians in Washington who are considering new polices to help improve the success of family businesses. We also encourage family businesses to offer cost saving suggestions that could prove helpful to other family businesses.

FAMILY BUSINESS FORUM

Family businesses often are victimized by trusted key employees who embezzle money, inventory and services. We invite family businesses to share their experiences in dealing with fraud and other types of crime - to help other family businesses better understand how important it is to be ever vigilant. Here is an opportunity to help other family businesses from becoming a crime victim!

True Crime Stories

The growth and profits of a family business are influenced by the infra-structure of the business - the process from moving from an entrepreneurial style of management to a more formalized or professionalized style of management. Developing an effective mission statement for the family business is often the first step in that process. We invite family businesses to post their mission statement so others can see "real world" samples of family business mission statements.

Family Business Mission Statements



Given the mess in Washington DC and Wall Street, we are advising our family business clients to take action – to create a stimulus package for their own family business!

If you are a family business owner, it is time to circle the wagons and do a complete “up and down” analysis of your business. Simply put, what can be done to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your business?

One approach, probably the most effective methodology for a family business owner to analyze their business and assess the various components, is to do a SWOT ANALYSIS.

It is easy to do and the SWOT process can produce powerful results, quickly.

SWOT ANALYSIS

All that is needed to do a SWOT ANALYSIS is a pencil and a pad of paper – and then asking some basic questions about the “whys and what fors” of your business. It is literally that simple!

Obviously, the better the questions, the better the results the SWOT ANALYSIS will produce.

A clever tool to help generate questions is an inexpensive tool called CHAOS BUSTERS – The Management Guide. It presents 160 key business questions one can use when doing a SWOT ANALYSIS. Think of the SWOT ANALYSIS being the pistol and Chaos Busters being the bullets!

Chaos Busters can be used for more than SWOT ANALYSIS – it really is a multi-purpose tool that can be used for many different kinds of applications.

Family business owners report how they use Chaos Busters as a way to better organize the focus of the management team – to help them see and get connected to the “big picture”.

Executives seeking employment report they are using Chaos Busters to help them ask better (more effective) questions during the interview process.

Management consultants and business advisors use Chaos Busters to better understand their client's businesses, to prioritize problems and to provide better (more comprehensive) solutions.

CHAOS BUSTERS

Reminders...

It costs you nothing... zip...nada... to ASK THE EXPERT. Most of our site pages have a link to a form that lets you submit your question to one of our experts. We try our best to respond within 48 hours.

Our Family Business Blog [Blog is short for "web log"] mini-journal will keep you updated about site changes and other family business matters. Check it out regularly on the site from the NavBar button. Better still, subscribe to the blog using the RSS feed information on any of our pages, such as

Understanding Family Business.

And remember to Take our fr*ee assessment on the 29 Leadership Practices...



That's it for this issue. If you have any comments, or if there are any topics you'd like to see covered, please let us know.

Comments, requested topics, blog messages...!



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