Just a quick post this month to share a NY Times Article about the Rockefeller family. Through its Rockefeller Brothers Fund they are joining the divestment movement to sell investments tied to fossil fuels and invest in cleaner alternatives. Whatever your personal beliefs may be when it comes to fossil fuels and global warming, the Rockefellers, through this move, are voting with their feet – behaving in a way consistent with their values even if it comes with financial cost. Similarly, in my Read more »
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The Emperor is Naked!
In Hans Christian Anderson’s classic, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a couple of shady tailors convince the king that they can make him the finest clothes and that those who are unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent will not be able to see the clothes at all. They pretend to dress the king in these “invisible” clothes and he pretends to see them as he surely does not want to seem an unfit ruler. In his parade he marches naked Read more »
Children in the Family Business: Part II
Collaboration between professionals is crucially important for enterprising families. In this month’s Family Business Minute I “walk the walk” as I team up with my colleague from the Family Firm Institute, Tibor Dani, who interviews me on the topic of Bringing Children into the Family Business for his cool, new webcast site Family Businesscast (in his state-of-the-art, green-screen studio in northern New Jersey). Lots of fun! Please take a look and let me know if I applied my wife’s makeup properly. This interview builds on my February 2014 blog post and goes much deeper into best Read more »
Teach Your Children Well
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the folk rock supergroup, offered some pretty good advice when it comes to family business and the next generation with their song “Teach Your Children Well”. Too often I am called into enterprising family situations where the struggles of the next generation are related to a lack of formal plans to pass along hard-won knowledge from the senior generation. While we often think of the stereotype of a senior generation leader who will not let go, I recently encouraged Read more »
Siblings, Family Business and Evolution
Darwin tells us that it is not necessarily the strongest that survive and perpetuate their species but the most ADAPTABLE. Big, powerful lions have been around for one million years but small, crafty chameleons have been around eighty million years. When it comes to sibling relationships the animal kingdom has some pretty interesting examples of selfless cooperation that we humans can learn from. Sea Rockets Sea rocket plants can recognize a sibling (they come from seeds from the same mother Read more »
Women in the Family Business (and Pro Ice Hockey For That Matter)
Shannon Szabados (pictured) recently became the first female to play in the Southern Professional Hockey league (for the Columbus Cottonmouths) and was the first woman to play in the Western Hockey League in 2002 at age 16. She also won two gold medals goaltending for the Canadian women’s hockey team, most recently in Sochi. Click here for the full NY Times article . While one might imagine that her male teammates might give her a hard time and resist the inclusion of women, that could not be further Read more »
Bringing Children into the Family Business
One of the main ways that a single entrepreneur takes the first step toward a “Family Enterprise” is by involving the next generation: children. Often, this process is informal; summers and weekends turn into a full-time job after college or right after high school if college is not in the cards. There is, however, such a thing as being too informal about this transition, and it can and does lead to trouble down the road. Here are some suggestions for Read more »
Family Business: Efficient Machine or Social Welfare State?
Who would describe their family business as a social welfare state? Not many. Although I’ve been called by some families in tears, fearing this is exactly what they had created, it is certainly not the norm. However, upon a closer look many families may find they have traded business value for family involvement. While some families are sophisticated and have formal compensation policies for family members (in addition to other policies regarding how and if a family member earns the Read more »
Cupcakes, Family Wealth and the Power of Giving Back
Two years have passed since I have accompanied my synagogue’s social action group to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) in Trenton, NJ. I sent some donations since then but a highly prized personal value (and one that my wife and I have worked hard to instill in our children) is getting directly involved with causes that are important and meaningful to us (see also my November post ). I was falling short because I was “busy.”I was becoming the guy who Read more »
Instilling Values in Children
One of my strongest interests (personally and professionally) is about how values are instilled in children. While virtually all parents desire to hand down their deeply held values, the process for doing so, and its success or failure, has particular importance in wealthy families. Many of them want to develop motivated young adults with strong character in the face of assets that can potentially dampen or even eliminate the need for work and independence. I am honored to have been Read more »