Family Business, Risky Business: How to Make It Work

In this trail-blazing book, acclaimed consultant David Bork provides a fascinating, candid look inside the workings of family business. He shows how family businesses combine the pressures of business with the complex psychological and social problems that almost every family faces: sibling rivalries, clashes over values and expectations, drug and alcohol abuse, in-law problems, and more. Drawing on his experiences as a counselor to over 200 family-run businesses, Bork shows how families can surmount these difficulties and make life in a family business both profitable and personally satisfying. Using the concept of the "family system," Bork explains how families either overtly or subconsciously develop and enforce their own traditions and values, often to the detriment of the family enterprise. He shows how the entrepreneurial founder can sow the seeds of lasting success--or sudden collapse--for the family business. He provides much needed guidance for developing a workable succession plan, and he shows how in-laws, children, spouses, and outsiders can be effectively integrated into the business.